Britain’s factories are set to benefit from hundreds of millions of pounds in savings after the government announced sweeping cuts to industrial energy costs in a bid to stem a wave of closures across the manufacturing sector.
Peter Kyle, the Business Secretary, confirmed that from next year energy-intensive industries such as steel, glass and ceramics will receive a 90 per cent discount on electricity network charges — up from the current 60 per cent. The move is expected to save around 500 firms as much as £420 million a year.
The announcement follows mounting pressure on ministers to tackle Britain’s sky-high industrial electricity prices, which remain among the highest in the developed world and have been blamed for a series of recent factory shutdowns.
Despite the scale of the relief, business groups voiced frustration that the measures will not be applied retrospectively to April 2024. It is understood that Mr Kyle had pushed for the scheme to be backdated but was overruled by energy secretary Ed Miliband after weeks of internal wrangling.
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