Details of energy crisis plan for businesses to be revealed next week

Britain’s government will next week set out further details of its plan to support businesses through the energy crisis, Prime Minister Liz Truss’s spokesman confirmed today (14).

The spokesman said the scheme would help with October energy bills and be backdated if necessary.

“We will confirm further details of the business support scheme next week. The scheme will support businesses with their October energy bills and that includes through backdating if necessary,” he told reporters.

“We are speaking to energy companies and businesses and representative organisations to provide them with reassurance on the points I’ve just set out.”

Britain announced last week it would cap consumer energy bills for two years and provide billions to help businesses struggling to cope with soaring energy costs.

Details of the scheme were scarce at the time, and promised as soon as possible, but the public work of government was subsequently paused following the death of Queen Elizabeth.

The update comes amid the confusion among businesses leaders who are reported to be increasingly worried about the prospect of delays to the arrival of support. Firms across many sectors of the economy have been warning for weeks that they may not survive the winter as a result of soaring energy bills.

Businesses broadly welcomed the six-month support scheme announced last week, but they are still looking forward to details on how it would work.

Today’s announcement comes a day after British Independent Retailers Association urged the government to clarify details on their intervention on the energy crisis for businesses.

“Every day lost makes it harder for businesses to plan their strategy as we approach the busiest time of the year,” Bira’s CEO Andrew Goodacre said.

British Meat Processors Association CEO Nick Allen too reportedly said that there was very little detail in last week’s announcement and there has been an “absolute black hole of information since, which is very frustrating”.

“It feels like they are just moving the cliff edge. There is a lot of frustration. We are desperately short of information on how the support for businesses will work. They’ve said there will be further help going forward for businesses, but what does that mean?”, reports quoted Allen as saying.