Alistair Phillips-Davies to receive £2.92m after financial year in which profit margin on households rose from 6.2% to 6.9%

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The boss of one of the UK’s biggest energy companies has been given a 72% pay rise, just weeks after arguing against consumers having their bills capped to save them £100 a year.

Alistair Phillips-Davies, the chief executive of SSE, will be paid £2.92m in 2017 after receiving the maximum possible bonuses for leading a “robust performance” by the supplier last year.

The pay rise is even bigger than the 40% rise awarded to the chief executive of the British Gas owner, Centrica.

Phillips-Davies was paid £844,000 in base salary, largely unchanged from last year, but topped up by £25,000 in benefits, a £910,000 annual bonus – more than double the year before – and a long-term incentive payout of £644,000. He was also handed £502,000 for his pension.

The retail arm of SSE increased the profit margin it makes on householders from 6.2% to 6.9% in the financial year 2016-17.



Among the big six suppliers, SSE has the highest proportion of customers (91%) on standard variable tariffs, the default energy deals that the Conservatives have promised to cap. The government has said householders are paying a total of £1.4bn over the odds for energy as a result of such tariffs. It claims a cap would save customers up to £100 a year.

Phillips-Davies argued strongly against a cap in an article published in May, writing: “As a major energy supplier we believe customers’ best interests is served by competition, not caps.”

He added that a badly designed intervention by government “could risk restricting customers’ choice of products, damage competition or limit people’s desire to switch”.

SSE defended his pay increase, which was revealed in the company’s annual report on Friday.



“We recognise executives are paid substantial sums in line with their responsibilities, but at SSE executive remuneration is strongly linked to performance and length of service and the company has been and always will be disciplined in its approach to pay. We would encourage people to read the remuneration report in full,” it said in a statement.

However, even the remuneration report acknowledged that the chief executive’s pay had “increased significantly”.



SSE was the last of the big six, which have an 84% share of the market, to put up prices during a round of rises last winter blamed on increasing wholesale costs and government policy costs.



The company increased prices for the 91% of its customers on standard variable tariffs by 6.9% or £69 a year.

