British Gas parent Centrica said it has agreed to sell three wind farms for £423 million, as the firm cuts the assets it owns in this area.

The company, along with its 50% partner EIG Global Energy Partners, has agreed the deal with a consortium comprising the Green Investment Bank Offshore Wind Fund and funds managed by US asset manager BlackRock.

One wind farm is the onshore 26 megawatt Glens of Foudland site in Aberdeenshire.

The other two are the Lynn and Inner Dowsing offshore wind farms off the coast of North East Lincolnshire, with a combined power of 194 megawatts.

Centrica said after it had repaid debt and other costs, its share of the sale would be around £115 million. The deal is set to complete next month.

The gas giant said: "The sale is in line with Centrica's strategy to dispose of its interests in wind power generation, while continuing to purchase wind power."

It said it would continue to buy all of the power these wind farms generated. It will continue to provide operational and maintenance support for the three sites until March 2017, it added.

Centrica said the Glens of Foudland site was fully commissioned in July 2005, while the Lynn and Inner Dowsing offshore wind farms came into full service in March 2009.

The move comes after Centrica completed a strategic review last July, which is aimed at delivering savings of £750 million over five years.

It said 6,000 posts would be cut across the group, around 10% of its workforce - although 2,000 new jobs will be created, so the net loss will be 4,000.

Centrica is also scaling back on its energy and production arm, cutting spending in this area by £1.5 billion over the next five years.

It will focus on the North Sea and east Irish Sea but is reviewing operations in Trinidad and Tobago and has decided that its Canadian business is now "non-core'" and it will "seek ways to maximise value" from it.