- 54% of business owners felt that the Energy Bill Relief Scheme wouldn’t provide enough long-term support.
- 15% of businesses want to see the Prime Minister implement more immediate assistance.
- 47% of business owners would like to see increased levies on oil and gas companies, with lower energy price caps put into effect.
In response to the ongoing energy crisis, the government has implemented emergency fiscal interventions to aid with rising energy bills. Following a turbulent couple of weeks since the controversial mini-budget, a lot has changed – including the resignation of Liz Truss as Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister. But what support do UK business owners want to see from her replacement to help them with their energy bills through the winter?
According to new data from a survey conducted by financial comparison site NerdWallet, 69% of UK business owners feel that more needs to be done to keep businesses afloat. 54% felt that the government’s Energy Bill Relief Scheme was only a short-term measure, and 15% felt that the support wasn’t enough.
The survey of 500 UK business owners and senior decision makers revealed the forms of support that business owners would like to see implemented by the new Prime Minister, with many being in favour of installing solar panels and having better access to renewable energy sources (19%).
More than a quarter of the business owners wanted to see support similar to what was available to them during the pandemic, whether in the form of grants to get them through the winter (14%), or Bounce-Back style business loans (13%).
It won’t come as much of a surprise that almost half of those asked also wanted to see an increased levy on oil and gas companies, alongside lower price caps for energy prices (47%).
NerdWallet’s business finance expert, Connor Campbell, commented:
“It’s been a busy few weeks in parliament, and now we’re seeing the introduction of a new Prime Minister. Our survey found overwhelmingly that business owners don’t feel fully supported through the energy crisis at the moment, so it’s clear the new Prime Minister has a lot of work to do to keep businesses in the UK afloat this winter.”
