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The GMB is calling on the government to ensure large scale power users are given competitive energy prices so the push for low carbon does not drive heavy industry out of the UK.
The trade union is making the call following the news that Tata Steel in Yorkshire is proposing 720 job losses by the end of March 2016.
GMB said it wants to work with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to assess the extent to which higher power costs for UK companies compared to EU competitors is leading to job losses.
GMB’s national officer Dave Hulse said: “The 720 proposed job losses is absolutely devastating news for workers and their families and for the local economies.”
“It is a very big blow for UK manufacturing. GMB will work with the company and others to mitigate the job losses and to avoid compulsory redundancies.”
The renewable generation exemption to the Climate Change Levy was removed by the chancellor George Osborne in his Budget speech last week. This means the levy of 0.456p/kWh will be placed onto electricity purchased and supplied to non-domestic business customers who had previously used Levy Exemption Certificates from 1 August this year.
Osborne said the levy exemption was being removed to prevent taxpayer’s money benefitting renewable generators overseas, but analysts have warned that large industrial and commercial consumers and suppliers will be most affected with uncertainty created in costs for UK businesses.
UK industries are also disadvantaged compared to EU competitors by the controversial green tax the Carbon Floor Price, although this is currently fixed at £18 a tonne of carbon dioxide for 2015/16.
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