‘I can’t sleep’: the small business owners struggling to pay energy bills.

joshua

Well-Known Forumite
https://www.theguardian.com/busines...usiness-owners-struggling-to-pay-energy-bills

Thousands of small businesses across the country are facing the possibility of closure, as energy bills have risen to levels that many owners are finding difficult to pay.

Unlike for residential homes, company energy tariffs are not capped, leaving some business owners facing an increase in bills of more than 350%.

Weeping Cross Fish Bar, Stafford

“I just don’t know how I can stay in business,” says John Evans of the Weeping Cross Fish Bar in Stafford.

“We are a small 5m by 10m takeaway-only premises. The renewal on our gas has just come through. It has gone from £9,000 to £32,000 a year. I can’t sleep at night.”

John Evans.

John Evans. Photograph: Fabio de Paola/The Guardian
Before the rise in gas bills, chip shops had already been hit by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has caused a doubling in the price of some fish and cooking oil. Meanwhile the UK’s drought has pushed up prices of potatoes by 25%.

To add to Evans’s scaling costs, a 35% tariff has been imposed on Russian cod landed in the UK – and Scandinavian suppliers have hiked their prices, too.

Evans’s shop is one of 10,500 across Britain employing about 100,000 people and serving 182m fish and chip portions per annum. He says his customers simply won’t be able to afford the huge price rises needed if they want to stay in business.

“I’d have to charge £12.95 for a fillet of haddock just to break even,” says Evans.

The industry is demanding help from the government, such as a cut in the VAT rate, which was reduced to 5% during the Covid lockdown but has since returned to 20%.

Andrew Crook, president of the National Federation of Fish Friers, says: “The current VAT system is nearly 50 years old and is outdated … We don’t want handouts, and a temporary reduction just prolongs the life of a system that is not fit for purpose.

“My members feel abandoned by the government. If we lose independent fish and chip shops and other hospitality businesses it will be a major loss to the social fabric of the country.”

In the absence of government support, Evans shares the pessimism about the future of his trade. “We are a standalone community shop, in business for 23 years with a great footfall, but this may finish us,” he says. “There is going to be a mass exodus from the business over the next six months.”


 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
As I just posted elsewhere my energy bills are now higher than my mortgage, and we can't cut back on heating as we have a baby. We're down to one wage too as my wife was made redundant while on maternity, economically it's going to make more sense for us to head to Latvia for at least Jan/Feb and maybe March too.
 

DoggedWalker

Well-Known Forumite
Other side of town from me but I’m a semi-regular visitor to Bod and on occasion stop in here for some dinner. The fish and chips are top notch and John is always a lovely, chatty bloke, I assume both are part of why it’s so popular - the queue always seems to stretch well out into the street.

I really feel for him and many other businesses in this situation. The manufacturing sector in particular I really worry about and dread to think how deep the recession is going to be.
 

gilesjuk

Well-Known Forumite
If you turn down your radiator thermostatic valves a bit in less frequently used rooms. Stick an extra blanket on the bed then it all helps. Having the thermostat in the hallway isn't the best place either (big open space, front and back doors opening etc). If you have a wireless one stick it in the living room.
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
If you turn down your radiator thermostatic valves a bit in less frequently used rooms. Stick an extra blanket on the bed then it all helps. Having the thermostat in the hallway isn't the best place either (big open space, front and back doors opening etc). If you have a wireless one stick it in the living room.
We keep the thermostat next to the babies bed, as that's where we care most. My radiators are ancient though, I need to put thermostatic valves on them but if I'm going to drain the system maybe I should update them. Wishing I'd done wet underfloor when I redid the downstairs now.
 

Feed The Goat

Well-Known Forumite
As I just posted elsewhere my energy bills are now higher than my mortgage, and we can't cut back on heating as we have a baby. We're down to one wage too as my wife was made redundant while on maternity, economically it's going to make more sense for us to head to Latvia for at least Jan/Feb and maybe March too.
Yes, you graft all your life thinking of the nirvana of being mortgage free and then you get kicked in the nads with energy bills which make your mortgage look like peanuts.
 

gilesjuk

Well-Known Forumite
We keep the thermostat next to the babies bed, as that's where we care most. My radiators are ancient though, I need to put thermostatic valves on them but if I'm going to drain the system maybe I should update them. Wishing I'd done wet underfloor when I redid the downstairs now.

Even without TRVs you can still turn down the valves on some rooms you use less. You're sort of manually doing the job the TRVs do. Of course, don't turn them down completely, you may end up with damp.

As for replacing the rads. It depends on your boiler, there's low and high pressure systems. Modern combis use higher flow and pressure I believe.
 

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
I'm really concerned about the fuel price rises. I remember the horrific days of childhood with ice on the inside of all the upstairs windows in winter. Do we really have to go back to that? My house doesn't have supplementary heating so it's the central heating or nothing. I'm already thinking of showering at work to save money, and I think I earn a decent wage. Feel for those on low or fixed income.
 

Theresa Green

Well-Known Forumite
Line your recently cleared garage with bails of hay, including the floor, walls, and if safe, the ceiling, through some kind support

Now, with your seventeen hot water bottles. ( filled from the hot top at the station) slip into your triple layer of thermal knickers and six wool blankets and pray that November will soon be here, so that you may reheat yourself on some random Guy Fawkes bonfire in the vicinity.

Wear a tall hat and a tattooed gown
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
I'm really concerned about the fuel price rises. I remember the horrific days of childhood with ice on the inside of all the upstairs windows in winter. Do we really have to go back to that? My house doesn't have supplementary heating so it's the central heating or nothing. I'm already thinking of showering at work to save money, and I think I earn a decent wage. Feel for those on low or fixed income.
Gas is still cheaper than electricity by a huge margin and gas boilers are a similar efficiency to electric heating so you're still better off using central heating really. We still have a gas fire so will use that to heat the main room I guess and spend the day in there.
 

c0tt0nt0p

Well-Known Forumite
That row of shops has had amazing publicity.... Just now on Midlands today they interviewed someone from Francesco's hair Salon and the Bod....
 

gilbert grape

Well-Known Forumite
https://www.theguardian.com/busines...usiness-owners-struggling-to-pay-energy-bills

Thousands of small businesses across the country are facing the possibility of closure, as energy bills have risen to levels that many owners are finding difficult to pay.

Unlike for residential homes, company energy tariffs are not capped, leaving some business owners facing an increase in bills of more than 350%.

Weeping Cross Fish Bar, Stafford

“I just don’t know how I can stay in business,” says John Evans of the Weeping Cross Fish Bar in Stafford.

“We are a small 5m by 10m takeaway-only premises. The renewal on our gas has just come through. It has gone from £9,000 to £32,000 a year. I can’t sleep at night.”

John Evans.

John Evans. Photograph: Fabio de Paola/The Guardian
Before the rise in gas bills, chip shops had already been hit by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has caused a doubling in the price of some fish and cooking oil. Meanwhile the UK’s drought has pushed up prices of potatoes by 25%.

To add to Evans’s scaling costs, a 35% tariff has been imposed on Russian cod landed in the UK – and Scandinavian suppliers have hiked their prices, too.

Evans’s shop is one of 10,500 across Britain employing about 100,000 people and serving 182m fish and chip portions per annum. He says his customers simply won’t be able to afford the huge price rises needed if they want to stay in business.

“I’d have to charge £12.95 for a fillet of haddock just to break even,” says Evans.

The industry is demanding help from the government, such as a cut in the VAT rate, which was reduced to 5% during the Covid lockdown but has since returned to 20%.

Andrew Crook, president of the National Federation of Fish Friers, says: “The current VAT system is nearly 50 years old and is outdated … We don’t want handouts, and a temporary reduction just prolongs the life of a system that is not fit for purpose.

“My members feel abandoned by the government. If we lose independent fish and chip shops and other hospitality businesses it will be a major loss to the social fabric of the country.”

In the absence of government support, Evans shares the pessimism about the future of his trade. “We are a standalone community shop, in business for 23 years with a great footfall, but this may finish us,” he says. “There is going to be a mass exodus from the business over the next six months.”


I had a meeting with John a couple of months ago and he comes over as a hard grafting, nice guy and well was very driven to push the business forward - one of the reasons I was meeting with him.
I also know the owner of one of our town centre's most well known town centre eateries and having heard what increase (in thousands) they face, it really hit home.
I'm also in a position to help people with household bills, so I hear and see all the info coming out before it hits the main stream , so it also concerns me that I contact and speak to so many people and they are either reluctant to make any changes, as they think all of this just won't happen, or they just don't want to change and that will cost them, massively.
Can we really face more empty shops and repossessed homes? Or is that the plan?
 

c0tt0nt0p

Well-Known Forumite
For far too long people took energy costs for granted. In my past life I used to see this on a massive Industrial & commercial level. I may have mentioned on other threads that up to me leaving my work in march I used to manage customers who purchased their energy flexibly (rather than fixed) and pretty much all of them got caught out massively by not hedging enough of their power purchasing and were getting stung for the difference (in some cases up to £1 million extra a month).
 

Theresa Green

Well-Known Forumite
Other side of town from me but I’m a semi-regular visitor to Bod and on occasion stop in here for some dinner. The fish and chips are top notch and John is always a lovely, chatty bloke, I assume both are part of why it’s so popular - the queue always seems to stretch well out into the street.

I really feel for him and many other businesses in this situation. The manufacturing sector in particular I really worry about and dread to think how deep the recession is going to be.
Semi regular

You can be regular and visit once every three years

Regularly

Not quite detached

Semi conducive

Not very likely
 
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