npower owner announces further West Midlands cutbacks

THE owner of Worcester-based energy company npower has announced the closure of additional facilities in the West Midlands.

In November last year German company RWE – npower’s parent – announced it was shedding more than 1,400 jobs as part of a restructuring.

Among these was the closure of Quayside House in Oldbury, The company has now announced the additional closure of its back office operation at Birchfield House in the town. The closure is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

npower said it was exploring the option of possibly converting Birchfield House, on Wolverhampton Road, into a project, training and meeting space for its West Midlands staff.

A third npower site in the town, Birch House, will be staying open but this is only after 400 staff redundancies.

RWE will be outsourcing much of its customer service and back office functions to Capita and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

In the UK, npower has around 6.5m residential gas and electricity accounts and employs around 10,000 people.