Business leaders urge action to cut energy costs

Higher economic growth can’t happen without action to cut energy costs, business leaders have warned new Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

A report from the CBI and Energy UK said “persistently high energy costs” are an anchor weighing down productivity and competitiveness across the whole economy. 

The report calls for the Renewables Obligation (RO) and Feed-in Tariff (FiT) costs for all businesses to be removed and for Climate Change Levy charges to be taken off non-domestic electricity.

It also wants the Reformed National Pricing (RNP) programme to cut balancing costs and for the government to support business electrification and energy demand management. 

Louise Hellem, CBI Chief Economist, said: “Years of loading policy costs onto electricity bills have left UK businesses facing some of the highest electricity costs among the world’s biggest economies.

“At a time when we really need firms to invest, electrify and compete on the world stage, these costs make all three goals more difficult, representing a massive drag on economic growth.”