Government is ‘running out of time’ to save British households from energy crisis

The government is “running out of time” to save businesses and households from the inflation crisis, one of the country’s largest business groups has warned today.

Policymakers should be launching measures now to shield Britons from the looming long recession, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said today.

The BCC has written to chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and both Tory leadership candidates, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, calling on them to send emergency grants to small businesses grappling with sky-high energy bills and cut VAT on energy bills.

The letter echoes calls earlier this week from fellow business lobby group, the Confederation of British Industry, which said thousands of “viable businesses” will disappear without immediate government support.  

A historic Inflation surge to more than 10 per cent, the biggest in 40 years, is threatening to throw the UK into the longest recession since the financial crisis.

Firms have called for more government support to deal with inflation surge

The Bank of England earlier this month forecast the country is headed for a 15-month long slump from the final months of this year, mainly driven by households and businesses cutting spending in response to soaring energy prices.

Despite those warnings, the government, still headed by Boris Johnson, has insisted it would not be appropriate to step up support before a winner out of Sunak and Truss emerges from the Tory leadership race on 5 September.

“We simply cannot afford to see another month of the same old news,” Shevaun Haviland director general of the BCC, said.

The warning comes as data from Barclaycard illustrated the scale of anxiety among small businesses over the economic slump.

Some 77 per cent are concerned over rising cost of bills and inflation, while the same level fear a recession.