Small businesses warn of ‘existential threat’ posed by £20,000 energy bills – Annual utility costs have more than trebled for a typical firm since early 2021
Small businesses warn of ‘existential threat’ posed by £20,000 energy bills – Annual utility costs have more than trebled for a typical firm since early 2021
9 comments
>#Small businesses warn of ‘existential threat’ posed by £20,000 energy bills
>__Annual utility costs have more than trebled for a typical firm since early 2021__
>By Tim Wallace
>21 August 2022 • 6:55pm
>Small businesses face an “existential threat” from soaring energy bills, industry leaders have warned, with thousands at threat of closure unless the new prime minister offers aid before winter.
>Bills for a typical small business have already risen from £6,000 per year in early 2021 to almost £20,000 now, according to the Federation of Small Businesses, with more pain on the way.
>Martin McTague, national chairman of the business group, has urged the Tory leadership candidates to cut VAT on household bills from 20pc to the 5pc and to extend the price cap to small companies, dish out vouchers to help firms decarbonise, and offer business rates rebates to help with the costs.
>“The new electricity and gas quotes, contracts, and bills that have landed on many small business inboxes in recent weeks and months contain, in black and white, numbers which add up to an existential threat,” he said.
>“How is an independent café supposed to find another £20,000 a year to keep the lights on and the coffee machine going, when they are barely breaking even as it is?
>“With five-figure annual energy cost increases common, too many small firms face impossible choices,” he said.
>Analysts at Cornwall Insight estimate that a business which fixed its energy price for two years from October 2020 will face a five-fold jump in costs in two months’ time.
>Mr McTague said businesses face a double blow as costs jump and their customers cut back. “Sky-high energy costs are sucking demand out of the economy, and dampening growth. The Government needs to get the situation in hand,” he warned.
>A Government source said officials “are working on a number of options to help households and businesses” but nothing will be decided before the new prime minister takes office on Sept 5.
>The warning came after reports suggested the Treasury was considering a proposals to prop up businesses this winter.
>The Sunday Times said Nadhim Zahawi, the Chancellor, is considering funding mechanisms such as grants for small businesses, as well as tax reliefs, to help them cope.
All deliberate. You can’t “build back better” unless you raze the existing system to the ground.
Don’t worry I’m sure the benefits from the government will cover that/s
I’m starting to think this is the plan.
Bankrupt small businesses, thereby removing any local competition and enabling corporations to buy up huge swathes of assets on the cheap.
Worth highlighting here that small businesses have not been protected by any sort of energy cap, and therefore have had the full brunt of gas price increases.
Business owners are typically not wealthy, and earn less than the national average. These are you local hairdressers, cafe owners, shop owners.
Tories will get rich and the rest of the population will suffer for their greed.
So pleased I sold my chip shop in 2019. So pleased. Really pleased. Thank fuck pleased.
As Johnson said “Fuck business.”
The Tories will help the big businesses that can afford to donate to the party or treat MPs to nice hospitality packages, they are not there to help the many SMEs that keep the economy going and employ millions of Brits. It is not that they stand to benefit much from so many businesses collapsing, it is just that they are too greedy to care about them over the energy companies.
Business rates on properties alone have been making people close up shop on new ventures. Happens regularly. Trying to find 2 grand a month just that after 6 months just destroys any chance of growing a small business if you have no capital behind you.