Responding to government energy price review

Between now and 30 October 2022, government is running a survey of all UK businesses and charities to gain insight into how they are affected and what support different types of business might need going forward. 

We encourage all co-operatives to respond to this survey before the deadline of 23.55 on Sunday 30 October (this is an extended deadline).  

Tips for co-operatives  

• Before you start, have to hand your most update to date energy statements, and information on your spend on energy and other inputs
• Read through the questions in advance [link to pdf that we need to upload as a resource] 
• If your co-operative is severely impacted and you want to make the case for support from April 2023, try and have answers to 2.8 and 2.9. And use 2.10 as an opportunity to explain how and why your organisation is so adversely affected.  For example, explain if your margins are small, or your business activity is particularly vulnerable to energy price shocks (because you operate a ‘hard to heat hard to treat’ building for example) 
• For question 1.1, all societies have a Companies House Registration Number in addition to an FCA Mutuals Registration Number, which can be found by searching on Companies House   
• For question 1.5, you may wish to briefly explain that as a co-operative you are ‘not for profit’ but also not a registered charity. If you are a charitable CBS in England and Wales, you may wish to explain that you are charitable but not registered with the Charities Commission  
• For question 4.1 you may wish to explain the challenges involved in investing in energy efficiency measures at this time, within a 6 month timeframe  
• For 4.11 you may wish to explain the practical limits to how much you can adapt your operations to mitigate cost pressures, within a 6 month timeframe  
• Use 6.1 as an opportunity to tell government what you think it needs to here. For example, does it have unrealistic expectations about how quickly and easily a business like yours can adapt, cut costs and invest in energy efficiency? 

Access a list of the questions ahead of completing the survey here.