The UK government vowed to help hundreds of energy-intensive companies cope with high power prices in an effort to make domestic industries such as steel and chemicals more competitive in Europe.
(Bloomberg) — The UK government vowed to help hundreds of energy-intensive companies cope with high power prices in an effort to make domestic industries such as steel and chemicals more competitive in Europe.
Possible changes — which will be consulted on in the spring — could include reductions in network charges, the government’s business department said on Thursday in a statement. Other proposals include exemptions from certain costs linked to renewable energy incentives, including feed-in tariffs, contracts for difference and the renewables obligation, it said.
The package, dubbed the “British Industry Supercharger,” will be made available to sectors particularly exposed to the cost of electricity, with the metals and paper industries also set to benefit. Some 300 companies employing around 400,000 skilled workers and supporting many more in supply chains are set to benefit, according to the statement.
“This is carefully-crafted support that will mean strategically-important UK industries like steel and chemicals remain competitive on the world stage,” Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch, who will unveil the proposals, said in the statement.
The Business Department said the measures aimed to bring the energy costs of the UK’s energy-intensive industries in line with those charged across the world’s major economies.
This is “crucial to helping these businesses remain internationally competitive” and would “remove barriers to move us further toward greener technology as part of a sustainable net zero future,” the department said.
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