Centrica, the owner of British Gas, has said its chief executive, Iain Conn, is to step down next year, as it slashed its dividend after a first-half loss. Conn will remain with the company until at least the 2020 annual meeting. He had come under pressure to step down after a row over his £2.4m pay package in April. His pay went up by 44% despite a difficult year that included higher household bills and plans for 4,000 job cuts. Between 1,500 and 2,000 jobs will go this year. Charles Berry, the chairman, said: "Iain has led the strategic repositioning of Centrica since 2015 and has been the driving force behind our plan to turn Centrica into a sustainable business." The company posted a pretax loss of £569m for the six months to 30 June compared with a profit of £415m last year, and it slashed its interim dividend by 58% to 1.5p a share. It said the full-year dividend total will also be cut by 58%, from 12p to 5p a share.