The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) have published a new survey, calling on businesses to provide information about their energy usage and the impact of rising costs on operations and service provision.

It is of great importance that community-owned businesses submit a response to this review, to provide an evidence base which represents the diverse nature of the sector. 

The Energy Bill Relief Scheme was announced by the Government in September for non-domestic customers in Great Britain. It will provide energy bill relief to businesses; such as those in community-owned business network that Plunkett Foundation supports, with discounts being applied to energy usage initially between 1 October 2022 and 31 March 2023.

3 month review:

At the time of announcing the relief the Government committed to reviewing the operation after 3 months, with a stated intention of identifying vulnerable sectors that may require ongoing support (of some form) beyond March 2023. On the Government website it states that the review will consider:

• how effective the scheme has been in giving support to vulnerable non-domestic customers
• which groups of non-domestic customers (by sector, size or geography) remain particularly vulnerable to energy price rises, taking into account the latest price position and forward curves, alongside other cost pressures
• how to continue supporting these customers – either by extending the existing scheme for some users, or replacing with a different scheme

BEIS, the department for managing the scheme have now published a survey to gather evidence to support the review process and Plunkett Foundation is urging all community-owned businesses to respond. The deadline for responses is Sunday 30 October and the survey will ask you to provide information about your energy usage and operating viability.

Helping you to consider your response:

Our partners at the Association of Convenience Stores have usefully prepared a PDF version of the questions which they are happy for us to share to assist businesses in consider the responses prior to submitting the survey. You can download a copy of the questions via this link – BEIS Energy Bill Relief Scheme Review Survey (October 2022)