Utilitywise discusses how the General Election result and cabinet reshuffle can support small businesses

Here’s why

After an extraordinary General Election result, yesterday afternoon Theresa May reshuffled her cabinet with Greg Clark remaining in the position of Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

With the new Government having a reduced number of seats, the CEO of Utilitywise, one of the UK’s leading independent utility consultancies, has issued a statement suggesting what BEIS policies could be supported by all MPs and should therefore feature in the upcoming Queen’s Speech.

Brendan Flattery also addresses the Conservative Party’s energy price cap manifesto pledge and how this could impact businesses if it is not done properly.

Brendan Flattery, CEO of Utilitywise said: “Utilitywise welcomes any Government intervention to reduce the cost of utility bills for businesses and families, but we urge the Conservative Party to make sure that its flagship ‘energy price cap’ election pledge won’t have unintended consequences on the cost of energy for thousands of businesses across the UK.

“Utilitywise hopes to work with the new Government to ensure that its cap on the domestic energy market won’t hinder competition in the commercial sector, leading to even higher prices for small businesses who are already struggling.

“If the Government wants to help small businesses from day one of the new administration, there are three immediate things that it could do to put money back into the pockets of small business owners: make switching easier for businesses; raise awareness of the benefits of switching amongst the businesses community; and finally introduce policies that encourage businesses to invest in long term, sustainable energy efficiency measures which stand to produce national savings of £2 billion. We hope that these are policies which all parties can support to provide immediate help to small businesses.

“What Utilitywise would also really like to see from the new Government is for them to promote the newly deregulated water market, which launched with little fanfare in April and went unnoticed by thousands of small businesses due to political distractions.

“We urge the new Government to now work with Ofwat and show small businesses how they can save up to 25 per cent from their utility bills by switching or renegotiating their current water and energy contracts, which they can now do for the very first time in England. Again, we hope that this is a measure which all parties can support.”