February 2023

We hope you will contact us if you have any questions or would like to discuss any matters in more detail. 

Energy bill support for firms to be reduced from April

Businesses will receive reduced support for their energy bills from April as the UK government attempts to cut the cost of compensating for soaring gas and electricity prices, the Treasury has confirmed.

The Treasury said that the government will cap support at £5.5 billion for businesses over 12 months from 1 April 2023.

Bills will automatically be discounted by up to £6.97 per megawatt hour (MWh) for gas bills and by up to £19.61 per MWh for electricity bills, a statement said.

Heavy energy-using sectors, like glass, ceramics and steelmakers will receive a discount reflecting the difference between a price threshold and the relevant wholesale price.

The energy support scheme is mainly used by businesses but is also for charities and public sector organisations such as schools and hospitals.

Bank of England raises interest rates to highest level in 14 years

The Bank of England (BoE) has raised the base rate of interest on 2 February to the highest level in 14 years. This is the tenth consecutive increase and is a half point increase taking the base rate from 3.5% to 4%.

The Monetary Policy Committee said it is confident that inflation has peaked and its approach is the right route to get it back under the 2% target.

Government launches consultation on R&D relief

The government has launched a consultation on simplifying the UK's research and development (R&D) tax relief system, driving innovation and growing the economy.

The consultation runs to 13 March 2023 and sets out proposals on how a single scheme could be designed and implemented.

This would replace the two R&D tax relief schemes currently in place – the Research and Development Expenditure Credit scheme and the small and medium enterprises R&D relief.

This is part of the government's ongoing R&D tax reliefs review, and follows changes announced at Autumn Statement 2022 where the two R&D tax schemes were broadly aligned.