To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what assistance his Department makes available to help rural businesses meet energy bills. (227739)

I have been asked to reply.

We have a range of support to assist rural SMEs as part of the Government’s support to the SME sector as a whole. We have developed information for our Businesslink.gov portal to consolidate and provide one-stop shop advice to SMEs on energy efficiency. We intend to have measures in place by the end of this year to enable SMEs to access energy efficiency advice and support though information and services provided by all energy suppliers. The Carbon Trust offers a range of interest-free energy efficiency loans and advice.