Andrew Wilson founded his Dromore-based business, Wilson Power and Energy, in December 2020 during the Covid pandemic, after spotting an opportunity in the power and energy sector. The company’s focus is in developing solutions that enable energy independence and business continuity across the manufacturing, technology, hospitality, healthcare and agriculture sectors.
The autumn statement includes cuts in national insurance for both employees and self-employed people. But Andrew thinks more could be done. “I suppose every little helps, but [the government] never go above and beyond,” he said. “I always think that they could always go further to help the working people of the country, especially during the cost-of-living crisis that we are all going through at the minute.”
As part of the plan to help businesses invest, the scheme allowing firms to write off the cost of spending on new machinery and equipment from profits will be made permanent instead of expiring in 2026. Under the full expensing scheme, for every pound a company invests, their taxes are cut by up to 25p. The move is seen as a way of boosting productivity through encouraging investment in new technology. Reflecting on this measure, Andrew said: “I think that is positive, I assume that will extend to solar panels and energy storage. But what I would say is that the tax break is very good, but we are lagging behind what they are doing in Ireland.”
He added that businesses in the Republic can benefit from grants towards investment in solar photovoltaic (PV) technology and that while tax breaks are welcome they don’t go as far in encouraging businesses to make those investments. He suggested that tax breaks are not enough to escape “the reality that things are very expensive” and that businesses may just struggle to meet the upfront costs.
His business has grown since it was set up. “Over the past nearly three years we have seen unprecedented growth. But a lot of that has been largely driven by the higher energy costs.
“So we’ve been deploying and installing energy efficient technology, on to customer sites, from solar PV, battery energy storage, electric vehicle chargers, so it’s a very good time for people in our business.”
The demand for energy efficiency has enabled Mr Wilson to triple employee numbers. He said that he, like many others, “had lost faith in local politics”.