“Our electricity contract finishes its term next month, and the cheapest available new tariff on the market has increased our electricity costs from £44,000 per year to £162,000 per year. We can’t pass on those costs to customers who themselves are in a cost of living crisis. Many businesses are really going to struggle this year and government needs to step in and control these energy costs.” — Ye Olde Fleece Inn, Kendal, United Kingdom
We are staring down the barrel of a global energy price crisis. Power prices have quadrupled in the past two years. According to the Federal Reserve’s international cost of energy index, they are at their highest level ever.
Small businesses, especially independent high street ones, will be burned the worst. If high rents and business rates weren’t enough to finish many of them off coming out of lockdowns, energy bills and inflation likely will.
The British Beer and Pub Association, a group of ale advocates, reckon that without government support, half o…