Responding to the news that Government’s energy help is to be expanded to businesses on existing fixed price contracts that were agreed on or after December 1, 2021, Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) National Chair Martin McTague said: “This is an extremely welcome move – the Government has rightly listened to FSB’s call to extend help to small firms which agreed to new or renewed contracts before the April 1, 2022 cut-off, and were excluded in the previous announcement of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. This is important news for those small firms who locked themselves into contracts just as energy prices originally rose. We have been talking to BEIS about a number of our members who were inadvertently penalised for doing the right thing, and trying to protect themselves from even higher hikes. We are very pleased at the action that Ministers have taken.
“The revamped scheme will provide a much-needed reassurance for small businesses trying their best to mitigate the impact of rising prices between December 1, 2021 and April 1, 2022. While this discount will only apply to a relatively small number of firms who fixed prices when wholesale prices were spiking, it would have sent the wrong message to the small business community to leave this group unprotected.
“Our eyes are now on March 2023 when the scheme is due to finish – the Government must come up with plans to avoid a cliff-edge after six months, and provide on-going support to small firms with soaring energy bills, regardless of which sectors they are in.”
