Budget for energy bill support to businesses to ‘fall by 85 per cent after March’

The British government’s budget for protecting businesses against surging energy bills is due to “fall by 85 per cent to around 5 billion pounds after March”, stated a recent report, citing multiple government sources.

The Daily Telegraph today (6) made the claim saying that the budget was for a 12 month period after March, including next winter.

Hinting that the government is planning to water down energy bill support from this spring, finance minister Jeremy Hunt on Wednesday (4) called the current six-month programme “unsustainably expensive”, with his department saying the government will set out a plan next week on how it intends to scale back the subsidies for businesses.

The Treasury has been covering around half of business energy costs since last autumn.

The original programme was predicted to cost 18.4 billion pounds when the government’s budget watchdog published forecasts in November.

Meanwhile, industry experts are warning of a “critical” situation for small businesses up and down the country.

According to a survey by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), Brits are reining in spending to withstand the impact of record-high inflation on their budgets, resulting in one in four of the more than 5,600 businesses surveyed registering a fall in sales.

The BCC warned its quarterly survey has settled at “concerningly low levels,” indicating the well-warned UK recession has set in.

“The situation remains critical for the majority of SMEs who find themselves cut adrift by monumental inflationary pressures, often driving triple-digit percentage cost increases, particularly on energy,” reports quoted David Bharier, head of research at the BCC, as saying.