Oral Answers to Questions

Sarah Green Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Green (Chesham and Amersham) (LD)]

20. What recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of providing further support to businesses with the cost of energy.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Chris McDonald)]

Supporting businesses with the cost of energy is a priority for the Government. We have expanded support through the British industrial competitiveness scheme and increased discounts on electricity network charges, and we stand ready to act if market conditions worsen due to the middle east crisis.

[Chris McDonald]

In the specific case that the hon. Gentleman mentions, if the company is operating a ferrous foundry, that will be part of the British industrial competitiveness scheme. If it is a non-ferrous foundry, he may wish to share further details with me, because I have had representations on both copper and aluminium foundries, which I am looking at very carefully.

[Sarah Green]

Not only are small businesses facing increasing energy bills, but they are dealing with prohibitive costs in connecting to the grid when they want to expand. These businesses want to grow, invest and create jobs, and we should be helping them, so what is the Department doing to bring down the cost of grid connection and ensure that the price of accessing reliable power is never the reason that a small business cannot get off the ground or expand?

[Chris McDonald]

We are concerned about the ability of businesses to connect to the grid, both to expand and to invest in new production facilities. Part of the work we did on reordering the grid queue was to help with that, but my colleague the Minister for Energy has commissioned an Ofgem end-to-end review so that we can bear down on the cost of grid connections.