The Public Accounts Committee criticized the Treasury’s understanding of the pressures businesses faced when the Energy Bill Relief Scheme ended in April. A lack of government bandwidth also resulted in over a million people receiving support later than they should have.
However, on 9 January, the government announced the next phase of its support for businesses with their energy bills beyond March 2023. This scheme offers a reduced level of support, providing a per-unit discount on electricity and gas bills during the 12-month period from April 2023 to March 2024, at 1.9p per kwh of electricity and 0.6p per kwh of gas.
James Lowman, CEO of ACS, emphasized the challenges that thousands of convenience stores would face due to the end of meaningful support on energy bills. The issue is currently affecting retailers, urging the Treasury to revisit ways of supporting businesses most impacted by exorbitant fixed contracts signed in the second half of 2022.
For further details, you can access the full Public Accounts Committee Report at this link: [here](https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5803/cmselect/cmpubacc/1074/summary.html).
