BRITISH Gas is to cut 500 jobs in its energy efficiency business as it tries to reduce its costs.

The roles are based in Leeds, Oxford and Leicester and will affect staff who deal in loft insulation and cavity wall insulation.

British Gas spokesman Mark Hodges said: "We must ensure that our costs allow us to be competitive for our customers."

The company has a workforce of 28,000 in the UK.

Brian Strutton, national officer of the GMB union, said: "This is an early stage of the programme of 6,000 job losses announced by parent group Centrica last summer.

"GMB expects a further 4,000 job losses still to come in areas that have yet to be identified.

"The closure of the loft and cavity wall business with a loss of 500 jobs is a real sickener.

"At the end of last year we went through a reorganisation which, we were told, was to make that business competitive, and everyone thought that was behind us.

"But it seems while we were doing that the company was hatching secret plans to shut the whole operation down. Staff will feel gutted and we will think twice about believing anything the company says now.

"British Gas was playing a significant part in tackling cold homes and improving energy efficiency. Now the Government will need to look at revising its carbon emission targets as a result of these and other job losses in the insulation sector."

British Gas, which is Britain's largest energy supplier, has not yet said when the job cuts will come into force.