On 8th September, the new Prime Minister, Liz Truss outlined the UK Government’s support package designed to provide relief to UK energy consumers.

Highlights from the announcement are set out below:

• Freezing the Domestic Energy Price Cap at £2,500. The current domestic price cap is set at £1,971 per annum for an “average” household. The new price is set from 1^st October 2022 at £2,500. This will apply for two years and is known as the “Energy Price Guarantee”.
  
  
• Scrapping of Green Levies. These levies, which are paid for through domestic and non-domestic energy bills, are being temporarily removed.
  
  
• Specifically impacting WME’s public sector customers, it was announced that a similar package of support will cover Business (Non-domestic, including Public Sector) consumers. They will receive ‘equivalent’ support over the six months from 1st October 2022

        This is due to be reviewed after three months, with a view to targeting those sectors most in need. Minimal detail was provided on            how this will work in practice, with further detail to be announced by the new Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng over the next few weeks.

 

The following key points are likely to be most relevant to WME customers in the short-term:

• There is an initial 6-month cap for business, charity and public sector (non-domestic) consumers.
  
  
• Prices will be capped at the p/kWh domestic rates from 1 Oct 2022. While the rates have not been formerly announced, industry expert Auxilione predicts that these will be circa 9.5 p/kWh for gas and 37.5 p/kWh for electricity.
  
  

Given WME provide an annual capped rate effective from 1^st April 2022 – 31^st March 2023, we do not believe customers will be impacted by the introduction of the Governments cap from October 2022, given our current rates are significantly lower than the forecast cap stated above.

• It remains to be seen what, if any, impact the removal of “green levies” will have. This could just be Climate Change Levy, but could impact other non-commodities, such as Renewable Obligation and Feed in Tariff.

We will continue to monitor updates from key government departments such as the DfE and BEIS and will also liaise with key organisations such as the Local Government Association and our key framework supplier, Total Energies.

We will provide further detail as it becomes clear.

You can read the Governments "Energy Price Guarantee Factsheet" here. Energy bills support factsheet: 8 September 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)