Energy crisis: Treasury mulling over emergency cash request for industrial firms
The Treasury is now considering a formal emergency funding request to help bailout industrial firms struggling with energy price rises in what appears to be an end to a cabinet row.
The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) today submitted a formal funding request to Rishi Sunak’s department, after the Treasury yesterday said no talks were taking place.
Business bodies representing heavy industrial sectors – such as the glass, paper and steel industries – want to see immediate actions taken by the government to ensure factories can stay open in the face of increasingly unaffordable energy prices.
Kwarteng said yesterday that he was speaking to the Treasury about a package of measures to rescue manufacturers that are struggling to stay open due to spiralling energy costs.
Treasury sources were quick to slap down the statement, telling Sky News that Kwarteng was “making things up”.
Number 10 appeared to back the business secretary today in the row, saying that talks are happening across many departments in a bid to help the UK’s heavy industry sectors.
A source close to Kwarteng refused to get into specifics about how any money would be distributed, but it has been suggested by a number of publications that it could be in the form of billions of pounds of subsidies.
More to follow