UNION leaders have expressed fears for hundreds of Scottish jobs after Centrica, which owns Scottish Gas announced it was cutting an estimated 4000 jobs.

Centrica sources said most of the the job losses, which are part of an extended cost-cutting programme, will fall in the UK and mainly British Gas and Scottish Gas, its UK energy supply businesses.

And that has raised concerns for nearly 4000 Scottish Gas staff working out of four sites in Scotland, three of which are call centres, in Edinburgh, Uddingston and Glasgow. British Gas an estimated 22,000 in other parts of the UK.

UNISON union leaders has raised concerns about the move in a circular to members working for Scottish Gas and British Gas.

The Herald:

Janet Stewart, the UNISON Scotland regional organiser said Scottish Gas and British Gas had just competed a 5500 jobs cull announced in July, 2015.

She said: The staff are very upset in the call centres which is primarily where our membership is.

"In 2015, the staff and our members were made aware quickly over the planning process to make the savings and cuts. This time, staff have been hit with this announcement by way of the media, and have not detail. It's the uncertainty that has effect."

The new cuts have come after what Centrica chief executive Iain Conn, called a "weak" end to 2017.

The Herald: Centrica chief executive Iain Conn said the first half of the year had been 'demanding' as total revenue fell 13% to 13.3 billion pounds

Mr Conn, whose salary jumped to £4.15 million in 2016, said plans for a price cap in the UK was one reason for the job losses, just over half of which will be in the UK.

British Gas lost 750,000 domestic customers in 2017, a a fall of about nine percent, with the company now left with 7.8 million UK domestic customers.

The energy supplier, which also operates in North America and Ireland, said group profits fell 17 per cent to £1.25bn.

Centrica said the job losses, which are part of an extended cost-cutting programme, would fall mainly in its UK energy supply business.

The job losses, which are expected to lead to annual savings of £500m by 2020, come on top of previous cost-cutting measures and will lead to total savings of £1.25bn a year by 2020.

He said that by 2020 Centrica will have shed around 9,500 jobs, representing as much as a quarter of the group’s workforce at the end of 2014.

Mr Conn added: “The only thing I regret is we are going to see 4,000 more colleagues leaving Centrica and it’s partly due to this price cap and competitive pressures.”

The first thousand will go this year through natural attrition and compulsory redundancies.

Matt Lay, the national energy officer at the union Unison, said: “Although Centrica has already shed thousands of jobs, it’s nowhere near out of the woods, and there’s much more misery to come.

“British Gas staff shouldn’t be feeling the heat today. It should be Iain Conn.”

GMB, the union for gas workers, said the job cuts were an inevitable part of a “failing plan” implemented by Mr Conn.

National officer Stuart Fegan said: “Iain Conn must immediately learn from the failure of other, now departed, battlefield generals that you cannot cut your way out of a crisis – GMB will fight these unnecessary job cuts.”