Businesses and public sector organisations in the UK will see a discount on energy bills this month via the Energy Bill Relief Scheme.
The Energy Bill Relief Scheme, which aimed to half the predicted MWh price for electricity and gas for businesses this winter, to £211/MWh and £75/MWh respectively.
This has now been enshrined in the Energy Prices Bill which also includes the Energy Price Guarantee, a support measure that is designed to limit the jump in domestic energy bills.
It had been estimated this would increase to as much as £6,500, however the bill reduces this to £2,500 a year for a typical household by capping the electricity and gas units at 34.0p/kWh and 10.3p/kWh respectively, inclusive of VAT for standard variable tariffs.
The Energy Bill Relief Scheme will discount energy use from 1 October with the support measure to run for an initial six-month period until 31 March 2023.
The UK Government is currently carrying out a review to consider how to support businesses with energy bills after April 2023, with any support for businesses to be targeted to those most affected by high energy prices.
“Seeing the savings from our energy support in bills will give businesses across the country peace of mind at a time when they are facing increased pressure,” said the newly appointed Business and Energy Secretary Grant Shapps.
“By shielding them from a massive increase in energy costs we’re protecting jobs and livelihoods, just as we did throughout the pandemic – ensuring UK businesses do not fall at the hands of Putin.”
With businesses set to receive financial support amid the energy crisis, AI and analytics firm SAS found that healthcare businesses could be set to benefit the most with a potential bill reduction of around 60%.
The healthcare industry will benefit the most from the relief scheme with an average annual bill per building of £53,190, compared to a forecasted £138,460.
Alongside the healthcare industry, several other sectors are set to benefit from the relief scheme for businesses. Education and schools are now to expect an annual bill per building of £50,750 in comparison to the £133,500 that was originally forecasted.
As well as this, the Emergency Services will benefit from the Energy Bill Relief Scheme with it now expected to pay an annual bill per building of £90,250 instead of the forecasted £240,000.
The Energy Price Guarantee launched this month in Northern Ireland reducing bills by up to 20p/kWh for electricity and 4.8p/kWh for gas.
Households will see the discount on their energy bills from this month, with savings for October’s energy use seen in bills from November. This will be applied to consumer energy bills automatically.
