Overview

• The forthcoming industrial strategy will introduce measures to reduce factory electricity costs, with publication expected early next week.
• Ministers will raise the network compensation charge discount for energy-intensive industries from 60% to 90%, extending relief beyond the current 350 companies.
• A government consultation will explore support thresholds based on a firm’s energy-to-turnover ratio, potentially covering 200,000 manufacturing businesses.
• Business groups have backed a proposal to shift 16% of policy-cost levies from bills into general taxation at an estimated one-off cost of £3.8 billion.
• UK industrial electricity remains 46% above the IEA median and four times costlier than in the US, driven by wholesale gas pricing that sets the market rate.