During the Winter of 2021, the energy price cap meant that energy suppliers in UK were forced to make losses selling electricity and gas below cost price to domestic consumers. One solution to this problem was that business users, whose energy prices are not protected by a cap, saw their energy bills skyrocket and that trend has continued to the present day. Losses in the domestic energy market are offset against the B2B market with reports of fixed deals at 70p per KWh and £3 daily standing charges for electricity, becoming the norm. Many business owners have walked away or are about to walk away as their energy costs become unaffordable.
We’ve heard lots from politicians about how the energy price can be “frozen”, energy bills can be “discounted” or energy companies can be “brought to heel”, but not one politician has adressed the plight of small business owners who will shortly go bust due to their energy prices not being capped. Nationalising energy companies will be expensive, take a long time to implement and will not reduce the unit price of energy by one penny. The small business sector is facing a disaster of epic proportions and no one seems aware that this is even happening. With inflation now “officially” at 10.1% and more energy price increases in the pipeline, hundreds of thousands of small businesses will cease to exist in the next few months. Liz Truss wants to “boost” growth, but the only growth we’re going to see in the coming months, is the growth in Universal Credit claimants.