UK Business Department: Will cap electricity and gas prices for businesses

UK Business Department announced on Wednesday that said it would cap the cost of electricity and gas for businesses.

Key takeaways

Business electricity prices to be capped at 211 pounds per megawatt hour (MWH) for electricity.

Business gas prices to be capped at 75 pounds per MWH for gas.

Suppliers will apply reductions to the bills of all eligible non-domestic customers.

For  the discount will reflect the difference between the government supported price and the relevant wholesale price for the day the contract was agreed.

The government will compensate suppliers for the reduction in wholesale gas and electricity unit prices that they are passing onto non-domestic customers.

Discounts to apply to contracts signed since April 1 this year.

The support will be automatically applied to all eligible bills.

We will publish a review into the operation of the scheme in 3 months’ time, to inform decisions on future support after March 2023.

Discounts will be applied to energy usage initially between 1 October 2022 and 31 March 2023.

A similar scheme will be established in northern ireland, providing a comparable level of support.

Emergency legislation is being introduced to underpin the scheme.

Emergency legislation will be introduced at the earliest opportunity when parliament is back from recess in October.

Meanwhile, the country’s Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng said, "we have stepped in to stop businesses collapsing, protect jobs, and limit inflation."

Market reaction

GBP/USD has ignored these headlines, as it consolidates the quick slump to fresh 37-year lows of 1.1305, earlier on.

The pair is trading at 1.1342, down 0.32% on the day, as of writing.