British Industrial Competiveness Scheme
Discussion
Just got a letter from the Dept for Business etc. telling us we might be eligible for the above scheme and thought others might be interested.
It appears to be for manufacturing companies in a range of sectors and will reduce electricity costs next year by differing percentages depending on your products and electricity usage.
The guidance, as expected, is unnecessarily complicated however cutting through it does look easy enough to apply and might actually be a tiny amount of help. We will have from October 1st to November 30th to apply.
There are already hordes of consultants' websites on google "helping" you to claim but it looks easy enough to do oneself:
https://check-eligibility-for-bics.service.gov.uk/...
It appears to be for manufacturing companies in a range of sectors and will reduce electricity costs next year by differing percentages depending on your products and electricity usage.
The guidance, as expected, is unnecessarily complicated however cutting through it does look easy enough to apply and might actually be a tiny amount of help. We will have from October 1st to November 30th to apply.
There are already hordes of consultants' websites on google "helping" you to claim but it looks easy enough to do oneself:
https://check-eligibility-for-bics.service.gov.uk/...
Yep 100's of consultants bolting it on to their service. Us included. Bit yes you can do it yourself. There's only a 2 month window to apply.
I did a linked in post summarising it:
If you're a Finance Director, here's what BICS actually means for you.
The British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) is a government scheme starting in 2027 that will cut electricity bills for eligible manufacturers.
It does this by exempting eligible businesses from certain electricity policy costs — specifically the Renewables Obligation and Feed-in Tariffs from April 2027, followed by the Capacity Market from October 2027.
Government estimates suggest electricity bills could fall by up to 25% for qualifying businesses.
DO YOU QUALIFY?
Four main boxes to tick:
• Your business is registered at Companies House - usually a given for GB Manufacturers
• You operate in an eligible manufacturing sector
• You manufacture products on the eligible product list at the site claiming support
• That each site uses at least 33MWh of grid electricity per year i.e. excluding solar, wind etc
The sector and product tests are based on specific SIC and HS codes
You don't need to import or export anything to qualify. What matters is that you manufacture an eligible product in Great Britain.
If a site makes a mixture of eligible and non-eligible products, the amount of relief depends on how much of its grid electricity relates to eligible manufacturing and supporting activities.
The current rules use 0%, 50% and 100% exemption bands.
You can potentially receive both BICS and British Industry Supercharger support at the same site but you cannot receive both reliefs on the same electricity consumption.
Where the same activity qualifies for both, the Supercharger generally provides the greater level of support.
The first application window opens 1st October and more importantly closes 30th November!
So if electricity is a big cost in your manufacturing business, it's worth checking the SIC code, product HS codes and site electricity consumption now.
I did a linked in post summarising it:
If you're a Finance Director, here's what BICS actually means for you.
The British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) is a government scheme starting in 2027 that will cut electricity bills for eligible manufacturers.
It does this by exempting eligible businesses from certain electricity policy costs — specifically the Renewables Obligation and Feed-in Tariffs from April 2027, followed by the Capacity Market from October 2027.
Government estimates suggest electricity bills could fall by up to 25% for qualifying businesses.
DO YOU QUALIFY?
Four main boxes to tick:
• Your business is registered at Companies House - usually a given for GB Manufacturers
• You operate in an eligible manufacturing sector
• You manufacture products on the eligible product list at the site claiming support
• That each site uses at least 33MWh of grid electricity per year i.e. excluding solar, wind etc
The sector and product tests are based on specific SIC and HS codes
You don't need to import or export anything to qualify. What matters is that you manufacture an eligible product in Great Britain.
If a site makes a mixture of eligible and non-eligible products, the amount of relief depends on how much of its grid electricity relates to eligible manufacturing and supporting activities.
The current rules use 0%, 50% and 100% exemption bands.
You can potentially receive both BICS and British Industry Supercharger support at the same site but you cannot receive both reliefs on the same electricity consumption.
Where the same activity qualifies for both, the Supercharger generally provides the greater level of support.
The first application window opens 1st October and more importantly closes 30th November!
So if electricity is a big cost in your manufacturing business, it's worth checking the SIC code, product HS codes and site electricity consumption now.
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