MP Pete Wishart described as “devastating” the news that more than 2000 jobs are to be axed at Scottish-based energy supplier SSE, after new owner Ovo announced sweeping redundancies across its business.

Ovo bought Perth-based SSE’s retail arm in a takeover announced last September. The local SNP MP said he was given assurances at the time that there would be no job losses.

Bristol-based Ovo said it will ask staff to apply for voluntary redundancy as it tries to shed 2600 roles after the coronavirus crisis forced it to speed up integration plans.

Around eight in 10 of these will be among the workers who came to Ovo as part of the £500 million SSE deal.

Ovo will also close two offices, in Glasgow and Reading, which it acquired as part of the SSE takeover and a third, in Selkirk, that joined Ovo when it rescued Spark Energy in 2018. The staff at these sites will be moved to new offices or be allowed to work from home.

The lion’s share of the lost jobs will be among those who work out in the field, such as meter readers and home service engineers.

Perth and North Perthshire MP Wishart said he had been reassured during a meeting with SSE that there would be no job losses. He said: “This is devastating news for Perth and I know everyone associated with the Ovo/SSE operation in Perth will be worried.

Wishart said he had spoken to Ovo chief executive Stephen Fitzpatrick. The MP said: “I reminded him that, added Ovo came to Perth, it was in a blaze of reassuring publicity that they would be a dynamic and different type of energy company, who would challenge the operating model of the ‘Big Six’ energy providers.

“This announcement casts serious doubts on the commitments made to the workforce in Perth.”

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The Unite union’s national officer for energy and utilities, Peter McIntosh, said: “This is devastating news for the loyal and dedicated workforce who have continued to provide emergency and essential services to customers throughout the Covid-19 crisis.

“We will be pressing the company to explain why it is not continuing to take advantage of the Government’s Job Retention Scheme, which was specifically designed to deal with potential job losses caused by the coronavirus crisis.”

Fitzpatrick said: “There is never an easy time to announce redundancies and this is a particularly difficult decision to take. But, like all businesses, we face a new reality and need to adapt quickly to enable us to better serve our customers and invest in a zero-carbon future.

“We are seeing a rapid increase in customers using digital channels to engage with us and, in our experience, once customers start to engage differently they do not go back.

“As a result, we are expecting a permanent reduction in demand for some roles while other field-based roles are also heavily affected.”

Already among the biggest challengers on the energy market, Fitzpatrick’s business, set up in 2009, ballooned to become Britain’s second-biggest energy supplier after acquiring SSE.

Gerry Crawley, a regional organiser at the union Unison, said: “Any job loss at this time is deeply regrettable but Unison will continue to work with SSE/Ovo to try to ensure that any job losses are through a voluntary redundancy process.

“Unison welcomes the fact that, through early engagement, 700 jobs that were going to be off-shored to South Africa, will now be maintained within the UK”.