Ineos, USA News: Labour’s Budget risks accelerating Britain’s industrial decline, chemicals giant Ineos warned, as manufacturers accused the Chancellor of failing to tackle sky-high energy prices. With winter approaching, John Healey announced a raft of measures, including £100 in energy support to more than 20 million homes. He will also extend a VAT cut on domestic electricity and axe standing charges on gas bills. For industry, he confirmed that the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme would cut electricity bills for 10,000 eligible firms.
Mr Healey said wider energy reforms are coming, with further action in the months and years ahead to bring down prices. But business leaders said the moves failed to solve the underlying issue of energy costs. Unions and charities, meanwhile, said that household support would barely dent bills.
Ineos said the Budget was a major missed opportunity to save British manufacturing. The company stated that the government knows Britain’s industrial base is being destroyed by some of the highest energy costs in the world, yet has failed to take the decisive action needed to stop it.
A spokesman for the company continued that reducing electricity costs is welcome, but it barely scratches the surface. British chemical manufacturers are being crippled by punitive gas prices and carbon taxes that their overseas competitors simply do not face. Factories are closing, thousands of skilled jobs are being lost and investment is moving abroad, noting this is happening now rather than being a future warning.
The company called for the North Sea windfall tax to be scrapped, a move the offshore industry had hoped to see. Ineos warned that instead of reversing industrial decline, the Budget risks accelerating it, and that Britain needs to back its own energy resources and industries rather than imports.
Reactions Across Industry and Unions
Stephen Phipson, chief executive of Make UK, the trade association for British manufacturers, said energy bills were members’ biggest concern. Without dealing with these costs, reindustrialisation would be impossible. Mr Phipson stated that industrial electricity costs are the highest in the world and have a ruinous effect on investment.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham described the measures as baby steps, noting that while relief on energy bills is welcome, bills are forecast to rise by more than £400 in January. Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, also warned that the £100 energy payment would barely dent rising costs and criticized the lack of a long-term plan.
