Bradford businesses speak of worry over huge energy bills

Firms are having to grapple with huge hikes in their bills, leaving them with tough decisions to make, including whether to pass the costs onto customers.

Businesses the Telegraph & Argus spoke to detailed how energy bills had skyrocketed - in one case from around £500 per month to £1,500 per month and in another, from around £3,000 per year to £11,000.

Gaynor Lake, manager of The Good Food Kitchen, on Leeds Road, said: “Energy prices are absolutely crippling us at the minute.

Gaynor Lake spoke of her fears

“We went from probably about £500 per month, now it’s gone to about £1,500 a month.

“It’s horrible. Because of this, with the energy prices, we’re seeing that there’s less business.

“People haven’t got that disposable income anymore, so they’re not spending as much, so they’re not coming in as much.

“It’s trying times, it’s a little bit scary as to what’s going to happen. I would have thought the Government would have intervened by now, but no nothing.”

She added: “I think there should be some heavy taxes on the big profitable companies and then give some of that back.

“Can the Government demand this has to stop, this silly game of cat and mouse between energy companies and us, the end consumers?

“It hits working class people more than anything. It’s going to be horrible, nevermind just for businesses, for people at home.

“It would be really, really helpful if the Government stepped in now, before October 1, because it’s going to be a worrying time for people. A lot of small businesses are going to close.

“They have to do something to help us as businesses are not going to survive.

“I think we’re quite an established business so hopefully, fingers crossed, we’ll be able to see it through.

“We did do it through Covid, so hopefully we’ll be able to do it again.

“I’m just very, very worried for people in general.”

Assembly Bradford is a co-working space on North Parade and has seen its bills almost quadruple.

Assembly Bradford

“Our margins are fairly tight as it is and our main overheads are really rent and utilities, as well as cleaning,” said Haigh Simpson.

“I think we used to pay around £3,000 a year on utilities, with the latest estimates, that’s going to be going up to around £11k.

“As a percentage of our costs and outgoings, that’s quite significant and not something we can really absorb within our structure.

“It is something to worry about and the only thing we can do about it really is pass it on, but then the problem with passing it on is the risk of then our building users and tenants not being able to absorb those costs as well, so then you risk losing tenants, which puts us in an even worse position.”

He added: “It’s definitely a worry and it’s something we’re trying to find solutions for, but we don’t know where it’s going to stop.

“If we were to pass on price increases now and then utilities continue to rise, we’ve only gone so far to solving the problem.

“There are other businesses that will definitely be worse off than us and other people that will be a lot worse off than us.

“As well as the impact on us directly, it’s the impact on the rest of the street and on the rest of the city centre.

“If we start to see lots of empty units, if the bars and restaurants and things start to close down, they’re kind of a bit of a pull for us as well in terms of attracting members.

“It’s a good street to be on, so it’s a worry in that respect, in how it’s going to affect Bradford as a whole.”

Mohammed Mansha, director of Xanadu 1816, a male grooming business in Eastbrook Hall on Leeds Road, said energy bills for the premises had more or less doubled.

He added the business was caught in an unfortunate position where the existing contract finished as prices soared.

Xanadu 1816, on Leeds Road

Mr Mansha said he used to shop around to find the cheapest deal.

“What we found this time around, because companies were expecting the rates to go up, all those fixed contracts just didn’t exist, so for the first time, we’re on a variable contract,” he said.

“We’ve never been on a variable contract, so we’re at the mercy of whatever the market basically throws at us.

“We’ve had to increase our prices, in line with everything else that has gone up.

“We are literally double what we were paying, and we are expecting it to go up further than that.

“We were just getting to point, coming out of Covid, where things were back to some level of normality.

“We’re finding that we’re building up new client bases, but all of a sudden, we’ve had to increase our prices.

“So rather than thinking of ways of getting those people in by putting special offers on or growing the client base that way, we’re having to actually hit them with increased prices compared to what we were doing before.”

Mr Mansha said if things stay as they are, the business will manage, but added: “If they do go up again, we will need to increase our prices.

“Would that impact our business? Yes,” he said.

Martin Nyemb, who owns the Tropikal Foods superstore, John Street, said he has seen customers spending less, while has also seen his energy bills go up by around 15 per cent.

Martin Nyemb, owner of Tropikal Foods on John Street

He said: “If I’m spending more, it means my salary will be reduced and if my salary is reduced, my responsibility at home cannot be achieved.

“It’s still moving up, it’s really scary.”

Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi said “there’s nothing off the table” in terms of options the Government is assessing for how to deal with rising energy prices.

Speaking to Sky News yesterday, Mr Zahawi said: “There’s nothing off the table. We are looking at all the options.

“Everything from the chief executive of Scottish Power talking about help where we need to maybe create some sort of a fund for companies to be able to continue to help their customers.

“All the way through to making sure we target the help to both households and small and medium-size businesses and probably some larger businesses, because one of my concerns is the scarring effect on the economy if perfectly viable businesses in hospitality, in leisure, in high-energy use businesses would actually suffer or no longer exist because of Putin’s use of energy as a weapon.”

He also said the Government has looked at “the pledges being made by the different candidates”, adding: “Liz Truss has pledged to have a moratorium on the green levies… it’s certainly is something that I think will help everyone, it’s about £150 of additional help, so we’ve worked up those options.”