More than 16 million people in the UK (61 per cent of the workforce) are employed by small businesses, and most of the money in the UK (51 per cent) is made by them. The biggest trade body for these companies, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB*) says the government has decided to “all but eliminate help” for these companies from April, when – as the government announced on Monday (9 January) – the Energy Bill Relief Scheme is replaced by the similar-sounding but much less generous Energy Bill Discount Scheme.
The new plan for business energy support feeds fears that small businesses expressed in November, when an FSB survey reported that almost one in four small- and medium-sized enterprises (24 per cent) would be forced to “close, downsize or radically restructure” if energy support was withdrawn. If this risk materialises, it could lead to a sudden jump in unemployment, which is already expected to rise: the Bank of England has predicted an unemployment rate of 6.4 per cent by the end of 2025.
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