Minister for Industry (): I can today announce to
the House that the government is taking the next step in
delivering a flagship intervention of the Industrial Strategy, by
launching a consultation to seek stakeholders' views on the
proposed approach and eligibility for the new British Industrial
Competitiveness Scheme (BICS).
In recent years, British industries have faced some of the
highest industrial electricity prices in Europe. In the
Industrial Strategy, the government committed to bringing British
industrial electricity costs more in line with other economies in
Europe to level the playing field for British businesses for
particular growth sectors.
The new scheme will reduce electricity costs for manufacturing
frontier industries within the Industrial Strategy's growth
sectors (the ‘IS-8'), and foundational manufacturing industries
which provide key inputs to the frontier industries, who meet a
certain threshold of electricity intensity. The scheme aims to
reduce electricity costs for over 7,000 eligible businesses by up
to £40 per megawatt hour from April 2027.
Eligible businesses are to be exempt from paying the indirect
costs of the Renewables Obligation, Feed-in Tariffs and the
Capacity Market. The consultation seeks views on the proposed
approach and how businesses eligible for the scheme should be
selected.
By bearing down on costs across the energy system, we expect to
deliver BICS and ensure that the scheme is delivered in line with
our wider priorities to deliver affordable power for businesses
and households. For example, the proposals in DESNZ's recent
consultations on RO/FiT indexation, if implemented, could
contribute to that goal.
This is a government that is not agnostic about the fate of
British industry, and British manufacturing. Given a fair
business environment, our industry, our workers can out compete
any others in Europe and most across the world.
We do not believe that the industrial capability of Britain
should be solely at the whim of the international market, or
foreign governments. Instead, our Industrial Strategy is a marked
departure from the ‘hands off' approach of the past, seeing the
UK government working in close partnership with UK industry to
support private sector investment and growth – just as other
developed economies have done and continue to do.
This scheme is just one of these steps under our new approach to
support British businesses to remain globally competitive. I
encourage Hon Members contact businesses in their constituencies
who stand to benefit from our British Industrial Competitiveness
Scheme and to make their views known before the consultation
closes on the 19th January.
