British Gas is continuing to support small businesses with energy costs via its £15 million support fund.
The company stated that it has already given £7 million in support spread across over 4,000 business customers with average grants of £1,700. The majority (74%) of grants have gone towards high street support such as sole traders in retail, bars, restaurants, and community services.
Previous analysis by Cornwall Insight indicated that UK businesses faced electricity bill rises of up to 133% from April compared to last year. This was due to the introduction of the EBDS support scheme in comparison to the Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS).
The EBDS government scheme sets electricity at £19.61 per MWh with a price threshold of £302 per MWh and gas at £6.97 per MWh with a price threshold of £107 per MWh. However, this could lead to a major gap in much needed support for British businesses amid the energy crisis.
Recent research from npower Business Solutions via its 2023 Business Energy Tracker indicated that 67% of large businesses believe the EBDS scheme won’t go far enough to support them amid the energy crisis.
Despite the recent price cap dropping for the first time in 18 months to £2,074, many within the industry have highlighted that the cost of energy is still significantly higher than before the energy crisis started in 2021. Because of this more support for business must follow.
In addition to grants, British Gas will be helping some businesses with the opportunity to extend their existing contract term by 12 months in order to significantly lower their current rates, it said.
According to British Gas, these “blend and extend” contracts would give businesses who are on higher rates the option of spreading costs over a longer period.
“We know how vital small businesses are to our economy, and we understand how many are really struggling with increased interest costs, business rates, and higher energy bills. That’s why earlier this year we launched our £15 million support fund, the only supplier fund of its kind, to provide some much-needed support to our amazing small business customers,” said Chris O’Shea, CEO of Centrica.
“We’ve already done far more than any other supplier to help consumers through the energy crisis with cash grants, and we are constantly reviewing our support to make sure it’s getting to where it’s needed most. We continue to provide targeted pre-payment support of non-repayable credit and the British Gas Energy Trust fund has recently opened for new grants to residential customers struggling with energy costs.”