Government said business energy bills are “estimated to be higher” in 2014 as a result of its energy and climate change policies.

The admission came in its Annual Energy Statement yesterday from the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

The report to parliament referred to internal analysis but didn’t put a figure on exactly how much.

However it played down the amount energy makes up of business spending.

It read: “For the majority of business, energy costs form a small proportion of total operating costs (around 3% overall) and the impact of policies is estimated to contribute to around 1% higher operating costs overall.”

For energy-intensive industries, the Government has introduced a number of measures to limit the impact of policies on their competitiveness, it said.

Government wants to do more to help small and medium sized firms (SMEs) shop around for the “best deal that suits their business needs” and have access to a redress scheme if things go wrong, the statement added.

On the flip side, DECC claimed credit for household energy bills being around £90 lower in 2014 than they would have been “in the absence of the Government’s energy and climate change policies”.

The report pointed to savings from energy efficiency policies, plus the £50 rebate to households which was pushed by Prime Minister David Cameron.