Reeves mulls taxpayer-funded subsidy to cut manufacturers’ energy costs June 8, 2025 Rachel Reeves is looking at plans for a £1bn taxpayer-funded annual subsidy to bring down the energy costs for manufacturers after warnings the UK faced “rapid deindustrialisation” without intervention. The Chancellor is facing mounting pressure to lower energy costs for industry with fears high prices are holding back investment opportunities and stifling the country’s competitiveness. [...]
End net zero levies raising energy bills, CBI boss to demand June 5, 2025 Net zero costs which push up energy prices and “anchor” businesses’ ambitions to grow must end, the boss of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) will tell government officials at an event in London on Thursday evening. Rain Newton-Smith, the chief executive of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), is set to urge the Treasury [...]
Up to 4,000 livelihoods at risk as ABF prepares to pull plug on bioethanol plant May 27, 2025 As many as 4,000 livelihoods are at risk after the owner of Britain’s largest bioethanol plant has warned it could shut within days, citing UK-US tariff policy. ABF, which owns the Vivergo Fuels plant in Yorkshire, has written to farmers warning it planned to suspend purchases of wheat used in the production process unless the [...]
North Sea windfall tax causing ‘irreversible damage’ says oil giant May 27, 2025 The boss of Enquest has slammed the windfall tax on oil and gas firms as doing “irreversible damage” to the industry and “driving job losses across the sector”. Amjad Bseisu, Enquest’s chief executive, called for the North Sea tax to be scrapped in an operations update on Tuesday after claiming it makes the UK a [...]
Energy bills to fall as Ofgem cuts UK price cap by seven per cent May 23, 2025 UK households are set to see a modest drop in their energy bills this summer, after regulator Ofgem revealed a seven per cent cut to its quarterly price cap – the first reduction in a year. The announcement will bring the average annual bill for a typical household in the UK down from £1,849 to [...]
SSE boss: Zonal pricing would be a ‘huge mistake’ May 21, 2025 Introducing a zonal pricing scheme to the UK’s electricity market would be a “huge mistake,” the chief executive of SSE has said. Writing in City AM, the Scottish energy firm’s outgoing boss Alistair Phillips-Davies argued such a move would create a “postcode lottery” where some households would pay £200 to £300 more “simply because of [...]
Thames Water: Bonuses from £3bn emergency loan ‘withdrawn’ May 20, 2025 Hefty bonuses to Thames Water bosses that were carved out of a £3bn emergency loan have been “withdrawn” following backlash, the government has announced. Environment secretary Steve Reed said on Tuesday he was “very happy indeed that Thames have now dropped those proposals. It was the wrong thing to do. They have now withdrawn their [...]
Centrica: British gas owner to sell stake in North Sea gas field to Ithaca Energy May 20, 2025 Centrica has announced plans to sell off a big chunk of its holding in the Cygnus gas field in the southern North Sea. The deal will see Spirit Energy – a subsidiary of Centrica – offload its 46.25 per cent stake in the site for around £215m to Ithaca Energy. Centrica, which owns British Gas, [...]
Smiths Group: Shares jumps as demerger on track May 20, 2025 British engineering firm Smiths Group posted a boost to revenue in the third quarter as it progressed on demerger plans. The group’s revenue jumped 10.6 per cent on the back of “strong performance and momentum in the order book”. Shares in the group rose over two per cent to 2,100p during early trading on Tuesday. [...]
Centrica: Major gas facility to shut without government help May 18, 2025 The boss of Centrica – which owns British Gas – has warned the UK’s largest natural gas storage facility will be “decommissioned” unless the government steps in. Speaking on BBC Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, company boss Chris O’Shea called for the government to underwrite the business’ investments in the Rough facility near the East Yorkshire [...]