More action needed to help firms with energy bills - Chamber

Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce is today calling on government to introduce a series of measures to help businesses who are struggling with energy bills.

It follows the release of a new research paper which reveals 58 per cent of firms cite inflation as more of a concern than they did three months ago.

According to the paper, entitled 'The ongoing energy crisis - what does this mean for businesses in Greater Birmingham? ', 24 per cent of firms said their fixed-rate tariff for electricity was due to expire at some point in the next six to 24 months.

Additionally, almost a third of businesses surveyed are paying more than 25p p/kWh for their electricity, while one in four business were found to be paying more than 5p p/kWh for their gas.

The paper has been published by the GBCC 's policy team after the introduction of a new Energy Bill Discount Scheme in April.

The new scheme is less generous than its predecessor which offered support for businesses that were struggling with rising energy bills.

The paper includes a series of case studies from local businesses who are dealing with spiralling energy costs.

It also provides broader quantitative analysis on the challenges they are facing as a result of these developments.

As a result of the findings, the GBCC is calling on government to take the following steps to help businesses struggling with their energy bills:

• Provide Ofgem with more power to strengthen regulation of the energy market for businesses.
• Introduce a Hardship Fund so that businesses who haven 't got the cash liquidity can survive the current energy crisis.
• The Government should build flexibility into the fiscal envelope and review the Energy and Trade Intensive Industries sector list.
• Extend the existing Industrial Energy Transformational Fund to £185million to align with the Skidmore review.
• Introduce a floor price to the Energy Profits Levy.

Henrietta Brealey (pictured), CEO of GBCC, said: “The additional support announced in the Budget for households struggling with rising energy costs will play an important part in reducing inflationary pressures in the short term.

“The lack of equivalent support for the business community was noted though, especially given the new support scheme which went live in April will be a lot less generous than its predecessor.

“The hope is that wholesale gas prices continue to come down otherwise any rise could lead to real hardship, particularly for those hospitality and retail firms that are still struggling with huge debts racked up during the pandemic.

“In the face of the widening discussion around the 'energy crisis ' we have collected both qualitative and quantitative data to inform the findings of this paper, which aims to reflect the challenges that local businesses have faced and continue to face.

“The paper also clearly sets out a series of asks from Government to help businesses overcome the crippling cost pressures they are currently facing and give them the platform to build a long-term path to prosperity. ”

Click here to review the research paper.