On 1 October 2026 the government opened applications for the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme and announced a new extra lump-sum payment worth about a year of relief for eligible manufacturers that apply this year, which was not in the April 2026 scheme announcement, as The Independent also reported.
Hunch. On the day the department only listed schemes that already exist, and the government said in July that further action on energy bills would come at the 28 October Budget, five days after this market closes.
The October market resolves on gov.uk news and the Budget documents: YES if between 22 September and 23 October 2026 the UK government announces a new scheme, a new rate, new funding or new terms for a measure that cuts energy costs for manufacturers or for all businesses, or a deal on energy costs for an Ineos plant at Hull. Repeating existing schemes, as the department did on 22 September, resolves NO, and BBC News and the Guardian settle it if gov.uk cannot be read.
We found eight similar UK shutdowns since 2013. In each, a large factory that uses a lot of energy paused, mothballed or closed, and blamed energy costs. We checked whether the government announced new help with energy costs within 31 days, for that plant, for heavy industry or for all businesses. It did four times. Two of those four were help for every business in 2022, and a plan first promised five months earlier in 2025.