Government to encourage businesses to save energy as it slashes bill support

The Government has launched a bid to help businesses use less energy on the same day as it pulls away most of its energy bill support for companies.

Small and medium-sized companies will be told that they can save money on their bills by putting light and heating on timers, turning down flow temperatures on boilers and switching to more efficient light bulbs.

The move will also help companies reduce their environmental footprints by cutting the amount of fossil fuels that are burned to power them.

“Falling wholesale energy prices are welcome news, but this in no way changes our firm, long-term commitments to vastly boost UK energy efficiency across industry and households,” said minister for energy efficiency Lord Callanan.

“From today businesses, charities and public sector bodies can access helpful and practical advice on simple actions they can take to substantially reduce their energy use – and potentially increase profits.

“Not only will this help lower operational costs by up to hundreds of thousands of pounds, but smarter energy use will help us deliver on our critical pledges to cut demand by 15% and reach net zero by 2050.”

But it comes as the support on energy bills for non-domestic customers – that is to say businesses, charities, schools and the like – will be heavily reduced from Saturday.

Until now these energy users had seen their energy bills capped at a per unit charge. But from Saturday they will simply get a discount which is likely to be far less generous for most companies.

The discount scheme will remain in place until March next year.

But business groups have warned of the consequences that companies face.

“The cliff edge we’ve been warning about for months is sadly here. Tens of thousands of small firms are now at an existential risk as government energy support will largely downscale to a scheme that offers almost no help from Saturday,” said Tina McKenzie, policy chair at the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).