UK Energy Intensive Industries Improvements are expected to increase energy efficiency by 11% across all sectors. The Government and British Energy Intensive Industries (EIIs) have agreed to extend energy-efficiency targets to 2020, as part of the voluntary Climate Change Agreements scheme that provides an extension to the Climate Change Levy. The Climate Change Levy provides a rebate for industries until […]
Ed Miliband on Fixing Business Energy Costs
Mad, Red and Dangerous Ed Miliband, Labour leader, kept up his increasingly bizarre reading of the energy markets by announcing his intention to fix energy for businesses. In the normal course of events we would be delighted that a senior political figure at a major political party was taking the impact of rising energy costs […]
Is the rate of energy switching really lower than in 2003?
Could energy switching be lower than 10 years ago? It’s hard to believe given the prevalence of energy issues on newspapers’ front-pages but according to collective switching group “The Big Deal” that’s the case. Henry de Zoete, co-founder of the Big Deal said: “Energy UK and the Big 6 claim that the market is working […]
Energy News: Miliband Misses the Point… Again
In an increasingly bizarre twist in the trend of political intervention in the energy market, and following his equally leftfield call for centralised energy price setting, Labour leader Ed Miliband has claimed the credit for SSE launching a domestic price fix for its customer base. SSE announced a fixed gas and electricity deal for domestic […]
A Budget to Boost Business
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne’s fifth budget promised more benefits for the business community as he continued to push for economic recovery. Amongst the forecast actions stemming from his announcement on 18th March were expected to be: New tax reliefs on investment for small business; Renewed funding for UK Trade and Investment at a […]
Calls for Competition and Markets Authority Energy Investigation
Which? and the Federation of Small Businesses Unlikely bedfellows Richard Lloyd, Executive Director of Which? the consumer watchdog turned price comparison website and the Federation of Small Businesses, have called for the Competition and Markets Authority investigation into the Big 6 energy companies to go ahead, claiming that 90% of consumers would support the move. […]
Lessons from the Budget: The Carbon Floor Price
The Coal Switching Price (CSP) and Carbon Price Floor (CPF) In George Osborne’s latest budget last week a key feature was his action on UK competitiveness by addressing the much-debated issue of the carbon floor price. In an attempt to stem one of the component drivers of the ever rising cost of electricity, Osborne announced […]
Big 6 vs. Competition and Markets Authority
An alternative to the big fight between Froch and Groves, but you can bet this one is going to go more than 12 rounds. Depending on to whom you talk to the UK energy market is either perfection personified or a corrupt cartel. We happen to believe neither is true. However, the government, regulator and […]
LNG: Yesterday’s Saviour, Today’s Problem
In a bleak outlook for UK energy self sufficiency and security, the Chief Executive of Centrica, owner of British Gas Business, Sam Laidlaw warned: “UK’s production of gas is falling rapidly. “North Sea oil and gas output has fallen by 38pc over the last three years. By 2020 we will be reliant on imports to […]
Laidlaw lays into Miliband
Sam Laidlaw, Chief Executive of Centrica, parent company of British Gas Business, has called for sanity in the increasingly tribal energy debate. Laidlaw said: “Political uncertainty is the enemy of investment. As a result, investment in new UK generating capacity has virtually ground to a halt “No country or company controls global events or markets, […]