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Energy support ends for small businesses.

 Small busi­nesses have warned that gov­ern­ment plans to slash energy sub­sidies will add to the fin­an­cial pain caused by energy sup­pli­ers' alleged lack of help. Energy relief for busi­ness is to be scaled

Small business

back in 2023-24, leav­ing about 5.5mn small com­pan­ies with reduced assist­ance even as gas and elec­tri­city bills soar. Small busi­nesses have warned that plans to slash energy sub­sidies will cause them acute pain, com­pound­ing alleged mis­treat­ment by energy sup­pli­ers that had already left them exposed to higher costs. The gov­ern­ment this month announced it would scale back energy relief for busi­ness in 2023-24, leav­ing about 5.5mn small com­pan­ies with reduced assist­ance in the face of soar­ing bills.

About one in four small busi­nesses will have to close, downs­ize or restruc­ture their oper­a­tions due to the cut in sub­sidies, accord­ing to the Fed­er­a­tion of Small Busi­ness lobby group, while almost 30 per cent will receive a max­imum of only £49 in relief a year. 

The new energy bill relief scheme, set to cost £5.5bn, replaces the pro­gramme intro­duced by the gov­ern­ment in autumn to com­bat high energy costs fol­low­ing Rus­sia's inva­sion of Ukraine. The reduced pack­age will provide busi­nesses with a flat rate per unit dis­count from April 1 for 12 months. Whole­sale gas prices have fallen below this threshold, but many small busi­nesses were locked into fixed-cost con­tracts when prices spiked last year. They said their energy bills had more than tripled since autumn.

Busi­nesses on higher fixed-rate tar­iffs said they still had not seen sup­port come through the exist­ing scheme. British Gas apologized for the delay,

"We are sorry for the delay in apply­ing the energy bill relief scheme dis­count," which con­firmed it would be issu­ing new invoices that included the dis­count. 

www.sba.tax

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Comments

  1. Aaron B.27 January 2023 at 10:37

    This is a mistake. Many businesses need help or they will just close down. People will lose their jobs and the whole economy will suffer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Keith27 January 2023 at 11:44

      Exactly. This was not the time to reduce energy subsidies. Quite the opposite. They should have helped for at least 1 more year and see what happens then.

      Delete
  2. Vera27 January 2023 at 15:05

    I wonder how many of those 5.5mn small businesses will still be open in 2024. I'm thinking about half.

    ReplyDelete

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