Treasury pressed to aid energy firms
THE Business Secretary has submitted a formal bid to the Treasury for help for industries being hit by the rise in global gas prices.
Ministers have been facing growing calls from industry bosses for assistance as they feared spiralling prices could force businesses to go to the wall.
The boss of British Glass, which represents the industry, has warned that a quarter of jobs in the sector could go without Government support.
Kwasi Kwarteng held talks with industry leaders last week, and ministers and officials are set to continue speaking to businesses throughout the week. It is understood he has now put in a formal request for help to prop up the worst-affected industries. Mr Kwarteng has pledged to keep the energy price cap in place to help households struggling with rising costs.
But no new support for businesses had been promised, despite bosses and some Tory MPs calling for help to prevent them going under as wholesale prices soar.
Industries including ceramics, paper and steel manufacturing are thought to be among the worst hit.
Speaking to the Times Radio Drive show, Dave Dalton, chief executive at British Glass, said the glass sector alone employs 6,000 people directly and 100,000120,000 in the sector more widely.
He said: “I think we might find as much as a quarter of those are at the moment in the spotlight, and we would want some support to get over that.”
The boss added: “Our conversation with Kwarteng on Friday was ‘give us more detail, give us more data that we can go along and take as an ask to Treasury’. “Now it came out over the weekend that that ask to Treasury is slightly different to what we’d anticipated.”
Gareth Stace, director-general of UK Steel, has called on the Prime Minister to “bang ministerial heads together” to avoid an industry crisis hitting his sector.
The official submission comes after the Treasury previously flatly denied having been in talks with the Business Department over any support. Mr Kwarteng indicated on Sunday that struggling manufacturers and energy firms would not get much more support but said he was working closely with the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to help the industry. However, a senior Treasury source insisted to the PA news agency that no such talks had taken place despite firms pleading for help to prevent further collapses as wholesale gas prices spiral.
It comes as Tory frontbencher Lord Agnew of Oulton said soaring energy costs were nothing to do with supply shortages, but were due to a “geopolitical move” by Russia to put pressure on Europe.
The Treasury minister’s unequivocal comments appeared to go further than the Government has gone before in pointing the finger directly at Moscow for the current crisis. And it follows claims that Russia had been limiting gas supplies in a bid to prod regulators in Europe into moving quickly to certify the controversial new Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
Last week, a suggestion by Russian President Vladimir Putin that his country could boost natural gas supplies to Europe led to a drop in prices. Pressed in the House of Lords over rising energy costs and calls for increased intervention and public ownership of “vital utilities”, Lord Agnew said: “The current squeeze on gas prices is nothing to do with the quantity of gas available. It is a geopolitical move by Russia to put pressure on Europe and we are caught up in that.”