British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme: consultation on scheme eligibility and approach
Applies to England, Scotland and Wales
Read the full outcome
Detail of outcome
This consultation focused on the proposed approach to, and eligibility for, the new British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS).
The consultation received over 288 responses, including from:
- business representative organisations
- trade associations
- energy suppliers
Respondents were broadly supportive of the scheme and agreed it will have a positive impact, highlighting its potential benefits to competitiveness, investment and growth.
This government response sets out the approach to and eligibility for the scheme, informed by responses to the consultation.
Original consultation
Consultation description
The British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) scheme aims to reduce electricity costs. This is for manufacturing frontier industries within the Industrial Strategy’s growth sectors – the Industrial Strategy 8 (IS-8), and manufacturing foundational industries which provide key inputs to the frontier industries, who meet a certain threshold of electricity intensity.
Eligible businesses are to be exempt from paying the indirect costs of the Renewables Obligation, Feed-in Tariffs and the Capacity Market.
This consultation seeks views on the scheme’s proposed approach and how businesses eligible for the scheme should be selected. We are seeking views from all stakeholders with an interest in the proposed scheme.
The list of manufacturing foundational industry codes in Table 3 of Annex A was updated at 3:30pm on 24 November 2025.
Documents
Updates to this page
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'Government response to British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme: consultation on scheme eligibility and approach' and 'Annex A: Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) and Harmonised System (HS) codes' added to page.
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The list of manufacturing foundational industry codes in Table 3 of 'Annex A: Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes for manufacturing frontier and manufacturing foundational industries' updated.