Dear all,

A bit more information on the governments energy scheme (some of this was posted on Slack yesterday for those who missed it – sign up!). This is aimed at helping to protect non-domestic energy customers, including charities and public sector organisations, from rising energy costs. The scheme will cover energy use for 6 months from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023, and is in addition to the Energy Price Guarantee for households.

Organisations do not need to take action or apply to the scheme to access the support. Support (in the form of a p/kWh discount) will automatically be applied to bills and the level of price reduction for each business will vary depending on their contract type and circumstances.

The scheme will be available to everyone on a non-domestic contract subject to a small number of exclusions (for example organisations that use gas or electricity for the purpose of generating power that they are selling back to the grid, and those that agreed a fixed contract before the 1 April 2022). Organisations on variable contracts will receive a discount, but there will be benefit, in particular, for smaller organisations who have recently moved off fixed tariffs to switch back to one.

For further information on the details of the scheme, see the press release and accompanying guidance.

Please do share this information with your networks. Social media posts to re-share and downloadable assets including a video and graphics is included in this stakeholder toolkit.

Government will publish a review into the operation of the scheme in three months to inform decisions on future support after March 2023. The review will focus in particular on identifying the most vulnerable non-domestic customers and how the government will continue assisting them with energy costs. As and when we have further information on the details of this, we will share these with you.

We appreciate that these energy announcements (both for households and for organisations) are unlikely to completely meet need, and that wider costs continue to increase, and we need to monitor what is happening and its impact. If you have insights or evidence on demand and costs and the impact they are having in your area please do share that with us.

Please do let us have any questions or comments you or your members may have on today’s announcement.

Best wishes

Maddy Desforges

CEO- NAVCA