Hastings businesses 'teetering on edge' due to rising energy bills

John Bownas, manager of Love Hastings Ltd, is calling for the Government to adopt a war footing to tackle the energy price crisis to stop the country from ‘falling off an economic cliff-edge’.

He said: “Walking around town and speaking to business owners has shown just how real this problem is.

"As just one example, a small independent office-based high street business with just three or four staff is seeing their energy bill go up from £1,700 to almost £7,000.

"That will hit the owner directly in the pocket, meaning that with inflation eating into his spending power he'll be between £7,000 and £8,000 a year worse off. And of course as inflation is being driven by energy prices that could get even worse.

"This is at the low end of the scale. Imagine a typical small cafe or pub with a current energy bill of more than £10,000.

"There are reports coming in of these seeing their estimated bills in excess of £50,000. It's hardly surprising that a lot of small business owners will be looking at their options right now and wondering how long they can keep trading without some sort of help."

Simon Kennedy, general manager of The Jenny Lind Inn in the Old Town, said: “We are struggling in a general sense, as there has been a real shift in what’s coming in and what’s going out, even though we have been trading quite well and busy. It’s becoming quite frightening.”

Mr Bownas added that the current crisis, from a business perspective, was ‘potentially worse than Covid’.

He said: “Hastings Business Improvement District (BID) will be looking for any way possible to help local businesses through the coming months.

“But this help will have to be initiated at a national level. We want to see the Government giving the country daily briefings on what measures they’re putting in place to stop us falling off an economic cliff-edge.

“Right now we are already teetering on the brink, with businesses seeing energy costs going up five, or even six-fold in coming months.

“We urgently need short-term financial assistance across every sector, otherwise it’s quite clear we will see many businesses fold.”

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