The Climate Change Levy is a tax your energy supplier adds to business electricity and gas bills: £0.00801 per kWh of each from 1 April 2026, on HMRC's published rates. Most businesses have to pay it: shops, offices, restaurants, warehouses and factories all do, unless one of a short list of reliefs applies. Some supplies shouldn't carry it, though, and suppliers don't always apply the relief. We built three things to find and fix that.

What the check looks for

It follows HMRC Excise Notice CCL1/3 and flags only these cases. A site that isn't one of them pays the levy, and the check says so.

  • Very small supplies. Electricity averaging no more than 33 kWh a day (about 1,000 kWh a month), or gas averaging no more than 145 kWh a day (about 4,397 kWh a month), from one supplier to one premises is treated as domestic use, with no levy and no certificate needed. This applies to any business, but only a very small site uses so little: most shops, cafés and offices use more, so go by the kWh on your bills.
  • Homes and charity non-business use. Care homes, hospices, student halls, flats above a shop, and a charity's activities it doesn't charge for. If at least 60% of a site qualifies, none of the supply carries the levy; below that, only the business share does. A charity's trading, such as a shop or café, still pays.
  • Metal and mineral processes. The share of energy used in metallurgical and mineralogical processes, such as making glass, ceramics, cement or steel, is exempt. Mining, quarrying and making finished goods from metal are not.
  • Climate Change Agreements. Members should see 92% off the electricity rate and 89% off gas. Only sites whose process is listed in a sector's agreement can join, and at least 70% of the site's energy must go into that process. If a site might qualify but isn't in one, the check estimates what an agreement could save.

How to use it

The free Climate Change Levy check asks five questions about one site: its electricity and gas over the last 12 months, what it is used for, whether it is in a Climate Change Agreement, whether it processes metals or minerals, and whether you reclaim VAT on your energy bills. You get the levy you should pay, the yearly saving, an estimate of what you could claim back, and, where a relief applies, a supplier letter and certificate to copy.

For example, a café using 40,000 kWh of electricity and 90,000 kWh of gas a year is over both limits, so the check shows it should pay about £1,041 a year: the levy on its bills is right. A much smaller café using 9,000 kWh of electricity and 30,000 kWh of gas a year is under both limits, if every bill stays under them. If its bills show the levy, the check finds £312 a year it may not need to pay and about £1,157 it may be able to claim back through its supplier.

Our guide to claiming back Climate Change Levy walks through the five steps: find the levy on your bills, work out the relief, get the paperwork ready, send the letter, and what happens next.