Pubs Face Closure Due to Rising Energy Bills

Pubs face closure across the UK due to energy costs soaring by as much as 300%, brewery bosses have said.

Leaders of six of the country’s largest breweries called for “immediate government intervention” on sky-high energy bills this winter.

The landlord of one pub in Essex told the BBC his energy costs had risen from about £13,000 a year to £35,000.

Pub owners said the energy crisis would cause “real and serious irreversible” damage to the industry without support.

The pub and brewery owners from six companies – JW Lees, Carlsberg Marston’s, Admiral Taverns, Drake & Morgan, Greene King and St Austell Brewery – sit on the board of the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA).

In an open letter to the government, they called for urgent intervention, including a support package and a cap on the price of energy for businesses.

Rocketing energy bills come at a time when the number of pubs in England and Wales is falling, hitting the lowest level on record – 39,970 in June, according to analysis.

Simon Cleary, who runs the Plough in Great Chesterford, Essex, said his gas and electricity bills had nearly tripled to £35,000 a year.

It means the pub now needs to generate a further £1,800 in takings per week to cover the costs.

“It really is that bad,” he told the BBC. “I think it’s going to be really tough unless there is intervention from the government.”

Chris Jowsey, boss of Admiral Taverns which has 1,600 pubs, said his tenanted pubs now pay more in energy bills than they do in rent.

He told the BBC that one of his tenants wrote to him saying he was leaving after 20 years due to his electricity bill going up 450% – an increase so large he couldn’t pass it on to pub customers.

Mr Jowsey said Admiral was investing in energy-saving equipment for pub cellars and to control fridge-energy use. He also said the company was “looking very closely at a scheme to try and buy energy in bulk and to allow licensees to make use of our own scale”.

But he said: “Even when we went to the energy market in recent months, no-one was initially willing to supply even us, never mind an individual licensee and their pub.

“So we’re trying to do everything we can,” said Mr Jowsey. “But frankly, this is of such a scale that even we can’t support this on our own, we desperately need government intervention to help because actually the market is broken.”

The Department for Business, Energy and Industry said “no government” would be able to control the “global factors pushing up the price of energy and other business costs”.

“But we will continue to support the hospitality sector in navigating the months ahead,” a spokesman added. The government said it was providing a “50% business rates relief for businesses across the UK, freezing alcohol duty rates on beer, cider, wine and spirits and reducing employer national insurance”.