Small business owners braced for energy price rise

Make It Cheaper surveyed 500 business owners about which overhead they thought was most unfairly priced. The results placed gas and electricity at the top of the list: 

28% = Energy
21% = Petrol/Diesel
15% = Business Rates
13% = Bank Charges
 9% = Insurance
 6% = Employment Tax
 4% = Rail Fares
 3% = Rent
 1% = Loans

The energy industry's recent claim that pressure on prices is primarily due to an increase in the taxes they are obliged to collect on the Government's behalf seems to have fallen on deaf ears. Almost half (45%) of businesses blame the suppliers' push for profits as the reason behind the 10% rise in business electricity prices over the past 12 months, with only one in 10 pointing the finger at the Government's environmental policy.

When asked for the most likely cause of energy price inflation, the answers were:

45% = The suppliers' determination to make a profit come-what-may
23% = Too much reliance on energy being imported into the UK
11% = The government's environmental taxes/subsidies included in bill
10% = Lack of competition between suppliers in the UK energy market
 6% = Demand for energy from fast-growing overseas economies
 5% = Funding capital expenditure on the UK's energy infrastructure

"Of all the overheads we speak to businesses about, the relentless rise in energy prices has caused the most bitterness," comments Jonathan Elliott, MD of Make It Cheaper. "For whatever reason, over half of businesses have ended up on the wrong kind of energy contracts with some paying in excess of 20 pence per unit for their electricity. A quick phone call to us, for example, will tell you that new contracts are available at around 10 pence a unit for electricity or just under four pence a unit for gas."