The Government has announced that it will scale back the support offered to businesses with higher energy costs from April, stating that the support in it’s current form is too expensive.
Under the current support scheme energy costs are capped, whereas under the new scheme businesses will get a discount on the wholesale prices. Those industries that use large amounts of energy for their inputs such as metal and glass will be given larger discounts than other sectors.
Bills will automatically be discounted by up to £6.97 per megawatt hour (MWh) for gas bills and up to £19.61 per MWh for electricity bills, a statement said. However, those businesses that locked in fixed price deals with energy suppliers will not benefit from the scheme and will face higher bills.
The new energy costs scheme is due to run until the end of March 2024, and due to cost £5.5bn compared to the previous scheme cost of £18.4bn for just six months.