The British Independent Retailers Association has welcomed this week’s announcement that the Government will help cut energy bills for businesses.
Having campaigned for clarification for almost a year, the association which helps represent independent businesses, has said the decisive action was much needed.
The announcement has outlined plans to help reduce bills by working with suppliers to reduce wholesale energy costs. This is in addition to the Energy Price Guarantee for households.
All non-domestic customers (including UK businesses, voluntary sector and public sector) whose current gas and electricity prices have been inflated, have been promised a discount on wholesale energy prices. This is applied to fixed contracts agreed on, or after 1 April 2022. It will also apply to energy usage from 1 October until 31 March 2023, and will run for six months.
Bira’s ceo, Andrew Goodacre, said: “It will be a relief to all independent retailers on the high street as they can now focus on the very important final quarter of the year.
“Our focus also now turns to helping the government determine which businesses are vulnerable due to the energy increases, as we feel indie retailers fall into this category. Bira has been very vocal in asking for the details of this support and independent retailers can look forward to lower than expected energy bills.
“We now want to turn our focus on determining the businesses classed as vulnerable as we know they will receive longer term support. Rather than individual businesses, we need to show that the high street is a collection of businesses that support each other to make the place successful. No high street wants to see lots of empty shops, so we need to focus on the vulnerability of the ‘place’.”
He added: “We now turn our attention to Friday’s [today’s] mini budget and urge the government to take decisive action to restore consumer confidence and consumer expenditure. Furthermore we need longer term plans to address other taxation issues impacting businesses, especially business rates.”
