Energy support package: what business owners need to know

theguardian.com:

Liz Truss has announced a fresh package of support to cover the huge spike in energy bills this winter – this time for businesses. Earlier this month, she unveiled the “energy price guarantee” which will freeze annual bills for average households at about £2,500. The help for businesses is intended to offer equivalent aid, freezing prices higher than they were last year but far lower than they would have been without intervention. Businesses had warned they would need to cut jobs or be forced to shut down without government help. Here’s what the measures mean for firms:

The government will provide a discount on unit prices for energy used by businesses. This will be calculated by comparing the estimated wholesale price a business will be paying over winter with a “government supported price”, expected to be £211 a megawatt hour for electricity, and £75 a megawatt hour for gas. The level of the discount depends on the type of contract, but the consultancy Cornwall Insight says it is about 45%.

The scheme is deliberately broad, encompassing all “non-domestic” contracts, including businesses, charities and public sector organisations such as schools. It covers those on fixed-price contracts agreed on or after 1 April 2022, those signing new fixed-price contracts in October, those on deemed or out-of-contract tariffs, and firms on flexible purchase contracts.

In theory, few businesses should fall through the cracks apart from energy generators themselves, including power stations. However, some firms will miss out if they signed contracts before 1 April when gas prices were already above historic highs, but before they shot up even further. The Federation of Small Businesses has called for those energy customers to be allowed