UK Opens Power Subsidy Scheme to Re-Industrialise Britain

High-precision CNC machine milling an aluminium industrial component inside a manufacturing facility in Foshan Shadi Airport, Nanhai District, Foshan, Guangdong Province, China.

Official response and confirmed impact

“We will reindustrialise Britain by tackling one of the biggest pressures facing manufacturers and cutting their electricity bills.

This support will help companies spend less on energy and more on growing their business.”

UK Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said this as the UK government formally opened applications for its flagship British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS), delivering a support package under its Modern Industrial Strategy designed to close the electricity-price gap with international competitors and reduce carbon-leakage risk.

The scheme targets more than 10,000 manufacturing facilities across England, Scotland, and Wales.

BICS addresses this directly by exempting qualifying manufacturers from the indirect costs of three statutory mechanisms:

Because non-commodity levies make up a substantial share of industrial power invoices, BIST estimates the carve-outs will slash net electricity bills by up to 25%, or about £35 to £40 per MWh.

Incident under investigation

Non-commodity policy charges have long burdened industrial electricity pricing in Great Britain.