Sarah Champion Calls for Support for Rotherham Businesses Facing Huge Energy Bills

Sarah Champion, Member of Parliament for Rotherham has called on the Government to commit to supporting Rotherham businesses facing catastrophic energy bills.

Sarah’s intervention follows the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s announcement that support for businesses unveiled by the Prime Minister just days ago will be subject to review. Announcing the changes, the new Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt said:

“Any support for businesses will be targeted at those most affected and the new approach will better incentivise efficiency.”

Speaking during Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Questions, Sarah said:

“This morning, the Chancellor said his support for business energy costs will focus on efficiency. Beatson Clark and Liberty Steel in my constituency are high energy users and have already made every energy efficiency they can. What will the Levelling Up Minister do to protect businesses like these with this shift in policy?”

Responding for the Government, Paul Scully MP, Minister of State for Local Government and Building Safety, said:

“My colleagues in BEIS are always working with energy intensive industries, like the steel industry, like Liberty Steel in her area, and it is really important that we continue to understand, that we can develop the technologies that are needed for the long term, but in the medium term, we will work with them to make sure we can offer support for those really critical supplies.”

Commenting, Sarah said:

“The Government’s shambolic conduct in recent weeks has very real consequences for businesses in Rotherham. How can businesses be expected to operate with any certainty when just as quickly as new policies are announced, they are abandoned by this dysfunctional, chaotic Government.’

‘Businesses in Rotherham need support and they need it now. But most of all, they need clarity to allow them to plan for the future and to continue to play their vital role in our local economy.’

Sarah continued:

“Levelling Up is nothing but more empty rhetoric. Instead of supporting businesses and helping our economy to grow, the Government is abandoning them to their fate whilst the Tory Party tears itself apart.’

‘Rotherham, and our key local employers, deserve better.”