Thousands of small and medium-sized businesses could reduce their energy costs through a new programee announced by the Carbon Trust.

The Carbon Trust's Big Business Refit will offer expert advice and financial support to SMEs to cut their energy costs through scrapping old inefficient equipment and replacing them with energy efficient measures. It is estimated that small firms in the UK can save as much as £40m by implementing such measures.

"Business owners are realising that for every month they ‘make do and mend' with old inefficient equipment, they are wasting more cash on unnecessarily high energy bills," said Tom Delay, chief executive of the Carbon Trust.