Review into Energy Bill Relief Scheme before the end of the year, minister says

The Government will publish a review into the operation of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme before the end of the year, business minister Jackie Doyle-Price has said.

Her comments came as Labour warned businesses “need assurances now, not the end of April”.

Speaking during Commons BEIS questions, shadow business minister Alan Whitehead asked: “The minister has announced what will happen where businesses have fixed-term energy contracts running into the period of the support scheme, but has said nothing about what happens where businesses are forced to sign new fixed-term contracts during the term of the scheme and running on after the scheme has ended.

“Many business firms may, as a result, face ruin if they sign new sky-high fixed-term contracts where they only know there is support for perhaps a few months of the new contract. They need assurances now, not the end of April.”

Ms Doyle-Price replied: “We will be announcing the conclusions before the end of the year, which gives sufficient notice before the end of the scheme.

“He would appreciate that we need to give support as targeted as possible given the cost of the scheme, but what I would say in respect to the specific point he raises in regards to contracts, obviously, Ofgem will be playing a key role in making sure that energy suppliers are playing honourably by this scheme.”

SNP MP for North Ayrshire and Arran Patricia Gibson warned the “uncertainty around the future of the energy price guarantee beyond April is frightening for consumers”.

She said: “That is not to mention the impact and insecurity faced by business.

“During the pandemic the now-Prime Minister kept U-turning on furlough extensions at the last minute. Will the Secretary of State offer reassurance and give at least some idea when a post-April energy price scheme could be established?”

Then-Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg replied: “Let me offer the reassurance that if it weren’t for the United Kingdom there would not be this level of support for businesses and individuals in Scotland. They simply would not be able to afford it.”

During the session, shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds accused the Government of presiding over the “lowest rate of business investment in the G7”.

He said: “The Government’s economic crisis is now being paid for by every household and business in this country, but the Government’s failure goes well beyond the pantomime of the last weeks.

“Twelve years of Conservative government have given us the lowest rate of business investment in the G7 and that is with the lowest headline rate of corporation tax. So, why does the Business Secretary believe the Conservative Party has been so consistently unable to provide a platform for the UK’s fantastic businesses to invest in throughout the last 12 years?”

Mr Rees-Mogg replied: “We are ensuring that during this difficult winter we were one of the first countries to come forward with a comprehensive package, to protect both domestic and non-domestic users to ensure that the economy could thrive and (he) complains that everything that has gone wrong is the fault of the Government.

“He seems to have forgotten about Ukraine, he seems to have forgotten about Covid, perhaps he should read the newspapers occasionally.”

Mr Reynolds said businesses were being held back from expanding and investing due to “so much uncertainty hanging over the country” as he called for a general election.

He said: “The truth is our wonderful businesses, they do want to expand, they do want to invest, they do want to grow, but they can’t do that with so much uncertainty hanging over the country and the Conservative Party can’t be the solution to that instability because it is the cause of it.

“Will he give us his honest view and tell us if he still holds the view he has expressed before that what we should have right now following a change of prime minister is a general election.”

Speaking in the Commons, Mr Rees-Mogg replied: “The greatest uncertainty of all is having socialists in office because the socialists ruin economies wherever they go.

“They create desolation and chaos, and high taxes, and as I said before every socialist government has always left office with higher unemployment, including the very short-lived one of 1923.”