Government announces six month energy price cap for businesses
By Rachel Lawler
The government has announced plans to reduce bills for gas and electricity with the new Energy Price Guarantee.
The guarantee will cap the cost of electricity and gas units so that a typical household will pay no more than £2,500 a year for the next two years. This applies to all households in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Businesses, charities and public sector organisations have been promised “an equivalent guarantee for six months”. The government has said that this support will be reviewed in three months and may be extended for some sectors.
Neil Leitch, CEO of the Alliance, commented: “While today’s announcement will give early years settings a little breathing space over the coming months, the fact that the government has only committed to supporting businesses over the next six months will do very little to ease their worries over the long-term.
“It’s clear that the government has failed to understand the immense pressure that businesses, including those in the early years sector, are under. For nurseries, pre-schools and childminding settings, years of underfunding and sharply rising inflation, alongside current energy cost increases, have pushed many settings to the brink and, on the basis of the information that we have so far, today’s announcement simply does not go far enough.
“With 4,000 early years settings forced to close in the last year alone, there is no time for the government to drag its feet on this. We urge the new prime minister to take urgent action to address acute financial challenges our sector is facing, before crisis turns into catastrophe.”