Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that small and medium-sized enterprises in Wakefield constituency are receiving the correct level of support under the Energy Bill Relief Scheme.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Energy Bill Relief Scheme is set out clearly in legislation so will be applied in a uniform way by all licensed suppliers. The regulations include a robust compliance and enforcement regime to ensure requirements are being met. Suppliers are also required to inform customers about the details of support, including the amount of the discount and discounted supply price.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has had discussions with businesses in Wakefield on the potential impact of the cost of living crisis on those businesses.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
The Government recognises the impact rising prices are having on businesses, including those in Wakefield.
The Government has reversed the National Insurance rise, saving SMEs £4,200 on average, cut fuel duty for 12 months and brought in the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, which is shielding businesses across the country from soaring energy prices, saving some around half of their wholesale energy costs. The Employment Allowance was increased to £5,000 from April and we have continued to provide business rate relief worth over £7bn, freezing the business rates multiplier for a further year.
We have also announced £13.6 billion of support for businesses over the next five years, reducing the burden of business rates for SMEs.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many SMEs in Wakefield constituency have received Government support in the last 12 months.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
The Government recognises the impact rising prices are having on businesses, including those in Wakefield.
Businesses in Wakefield will have benefitted from the Government’s reversal of the National Insurance rise, saving SMEs on average £4,200, cut fuel duty for 12 months and the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, to protect SMEs from high energy costs over the winter. The Employment Allowance was increased to £5,000 from April and we have continued to provide business rate relief worth over £7bn, freezing the business rates multiplier for a further year.
The Government is providing financial support - 309 SMEs in Wakefield have received Start Up Loans to the value of £3,833,148 as of November 2022.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when further details of the Alternative Fuel Payments scheme will be announced and when payments will be made to eligible households.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The vast majority of Alternative Fuel Payments eligible households in Great Britain will receive payment automatically via their electricity supplier with no need to take any action, and we anticipate this payment being made as soon as possible in the new year.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an assessment of the number of people who were previously eligible for the Warm Home Discount Scheme that are no longer eligible following changes in eligibility criteria in the 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government published an impact assessment for expanding and reforming the scheme in England and Wales which compared the number of rebates under the assessed options. The Government does not hold data on who received a rebate under the Broader Group in previous scheme years and therefore has not conducted an assessment of the number of people who were previously eligible, who will no longer be eligible in this scheme year.
There will be an online eligibility checker on gov.uk to help people understand if they may be eligible, and the Government is sharing information on the new scheme with energy suppliers and charities.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department will take steps to provide support for people who do not have electricity provided through a domestic electricity supply contract and cannot access the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
Answered by Graham Stuart
As announced on 29 July, the EBSS Alternative Funding will be available to provide equivalent support of £400 for energy bills for households that will not receive the EBSS. This includes those who do not have a domestic electricity meter or a direct relationship with an energy supplier.
The Government is finalising the details of the Alternative Funding to ensure the process is up and running for applications this winter.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department is taking steps to provide financial support to people who were previously eligible for the Warm Home Discount Scheme and are no longer eligible following changes in eligibility criteria.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government has expanded and reformed the Warm Home Discount scheme in England and Wales to target fuel poverty better, provide the majority of the rebates automatically, and standardise the eligibility across all participating energy suppliers. Over 3 million households will receive a rebate this winter.
Energy suppliers can provide additional support to households through the Industry Initiatives portion of the scheme, through measures such as financial assistance, debt write-off, benefit entitlement checks, energy advice, and energy efficiency.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to (a) encourage entrepreneurship and (b) support small business expansion.
Answered by Dean Russell
The Government is committed to supporting SMEs through exemption of new regulations where possible. This exemption was recently extended to businesses with up to 500 employees, potentially reducing red tape and bureaucracy for up to 40,000 more businesses.
The British Business Bank is supporting over £12.2bn of finance to over 96,000 SMEs. Schemes include Start-Up Loans and the Recovery Loan Scheme.
The Government has also acted to reverse the National Insurance rise, which will save small businesses £4,200 on average.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what support his Department is providing for (a) electricity-only households and (b) those with inefficient Economy 7 storage heaters which require upgrades.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS) is delivering a £400 non-repayable government discount. Electricity suppliers are delivering this support to British households with a domestic electricity meter over six months from October 2022. The Department will closely monitor the impact of prices on consumption over the months ahead and is actively considering how storage heaters are affected by the scheme.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of decoupling renewable energy from the wholesale energy market, in the context of the impact of gas prices on that market.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government has introduced the Energy Prices Bill, including powers to help address the link between high global gas prices and the cost of low-carbon electricity, allowing consumers to benefit from the ‘green dividend’ of low-priced clean energy.
The Government recently launched the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA) - a major review into Britain’s electricity market design. It is considering a broad range of enduring reforms, including ways of increasing investment in low carbon capacity which would result in gas-fired generation being the price setter for electricity less often, and reforms to the wholesale market so that volatile gas prices do not set the price of cheaper renewables, which could have the effect of decoupling gas and electricity prices.