Please kindly sign this petition for engery price cap on small businesses.

Things change I've changed

Things change I've changed

Things change I've changed

Soldato
Joined
27 Jul 2005
Posts
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Location
The Orion Spur
I co-manage a restaurant that I've worked in for nearly 30 years, started as a KP, a couple of days ago I was looking at our energy contract end dates, in particular our gas one as it's one of our larger engery bills, we normally pay around 14k per year, our contract ends in February, I rang British Gas to see what it would be renewed at based on the current unit price, 95k!!, absolutely floored me, I've put so much into this business, there is noway we can weather that kind of energy price increase.

Please could you kindly sign and share this petition, I'm not sure what else to do other than write to my local MP which I don't think will do much as he is completely useless.

petition.parliament.uk

Archived Petition: Cap energy price increases for small businesses.

Help small businesses in the current climate. My electricity bill alone has doubled in the last two years and is set to increase further. Similar small businesses are experiencing similar issues and will go under if there aren't any supporting provisions laid out.
petition.parliament.uk petition.parliament.uk
 
Signed, I only hope that something is done about this and quickly. The government needs to step in now before people's livelihoods are destroyed.
 
Now please don't think I'm being blasé about it all, I'm a sole trader who actually works with small businesses where ultimately I end up with less work if they get less type of thing, but I can't sign that petition because I don't think capping prices (which would still go up anyway) is the right solution for small businesses, well for anybody really.

While I don't disagree with the need for energy prices to be 'corrected' (although you could argue the old prices were too low), capping prices like they do for consumers isn't going to fix the issue imo, not to mention where exactly would you cap it and/or draw a line on what is a 'small business' (essentially someone will always lose out).

You only need to look at consumer oil/electric prices set by ofgen (and now more frequently to make it better for the consumer :rolleyes: ..) they set the prices so the energy companies don't lose out and as such any capped pricing for businesses would fall under the same structure at best. If you look at it from that perspective you'd still be seeing your current price roughly triple to around £45k, which while better than 95k is still another £80+ a day (assuming no days off in a year) you'd need to find when your customers have their own financial concerns.
 
Signed. I hope something is done, and quick. No way a small business can survive when it needs to make £95k just to open its doors.

Wishing you all the best.
 
lsg1r said:
Now please don't think I'm being blasé about it all, I'm a sole trader who actually works with small businesses where ultimately I end up with less work if they get less type of thing, but I can't sign that petition because I don't think capping prices (which would still go up anyway) is the right solution for small businesses, well for anybody really.

While I don't disagree with the need for energy prices to be 'corrected' (although you could argue the old prices were too low), capping prices like they do for consumers isn't going to fix the issue imo, not to mention where exactly would you cap it and/or draw a line on what is a 'small business' (essentially someone will always lose out).

You only need to look at consumer oil/electric prices set by ofgen (and now more frequently to make it better for the consumer :rolleyes: ..) they set the prices so the energy companies don't lose out and as such any capped pricing for businesses would fall under the same structure at best. If you look at it from that perspective you'd still be seeing your current price roughly triple to around £45k, which while better than 95k is still another £80+ a day (assuming no days off in a year) you'd need to find when your customers have their own financial concerns.
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End of the day something has to be done - if things go the way they are looking a ton of small and even medium sized businesses are going to the wall in the coming weeks and months. I know several people whose anticipated rise in energy costs is basically going to wipe out their entire profit margin and their customers won't accept the kind of price rises required to cover it, their next step is to look at their wages bill but in some cases they can't physically operate with less people.
 
lsg1r said:
Now please don't think I'm being blasé about it all, I'm a sole trader who actually works with small businesses where ultimately I end up with less work if they get less type of thing, but I can't sign that petition because I don't think capping prices (which would still go up anyway) is the right solution for small businesses, well for anybody really.

While I don't disagree with the need for energy prices to be 'corrected' (although you could argue the old prices were too low), capping prices like they do for consumers isn't going to fix the issue imo, not to mention where exactly would you cap it and/or draw a line on what is a 'small business' (essentially someone will always lose out).

You only need to look at consumer oil/electric prices set by ofgen (and now more frequently to make it better for the consumer :rolleyes: ..) they set the prices so the energy companies don't lose out and as such any capped pricing for businesses would fall under the same structure at best. If you look at it from that perspective you'd still be seeing your current price roughly triple to around £45k, which while better than 95k is still another £80+ a day (assuming no days off in a year) you'd need to find when your customers have their own financial concerns.
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I also don't think it's a long term viable solution, but it might buy us and other businesses some time, also this petition might lead to this being discussed in parliament where by other solutions and ideas might be discussed or brought forward.

Also I certainly don't think energy prices were too cheap considering we was paying 14k per year for gas alone for one restaurant, and a cap @ 45k might just allow us to scrap through until prices lower again.
 
Do these petitions actually do anything?

Government will be keeping an eye on energy pricing as the lead topic of the moment. I don't see that this (as it will no doubt exceed it's 100k target) will add anything. The proposed discussion in parliament will be being held anyway by government and opposition front benches. This topic will get rolled into that. I am not saying that it is not important however it needs considering in the round with all other consumers and customers of energy companies.
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
I totally disagree with this personally

I would much rather see more help to families directly, but everyone is free to have their opinion
Mine is too many service sector eateries, pubs etc for what the demand is going to be considering COL crisis
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That's fine, but if our place goes under around 28 famlies are effected, I believe it makes sense to try and keep small to medium businesses afloat when they supply employment to half of the UK.

You say that you believe there is too many service sector eateries, pubs etc, but with these energy prices this isn't just a natural economic cleansing of businesses with a survival of the fittest in mind, we are one of the busied and popular restaurants in our town, we are in high demand, but this energy prices are not feasible to run any 'convectional' eatery/restaurant, these are extenuating circumstances that need intervention.
 
Whether you agree or not you should sign it becuse right now nothing is being done. The entire economy is going to collapse under the sheer insanity of these increases. Jobs related to those businesses closing further in increasing the pain.

Something has to be done and if signing something like this forces discussion it’s worth it rather than sitting on the fence becuse you don’t think this particular thing is the solution.
 
Out of interest, what is your current unit rate, and what is the unit rate they plan to offer going forward, there must be some rival company who can step in and offer a much better value?
 
Hagar said:
Do these petitions actually do anything?

Government will be keeping an eye on energy pricing as the lead topic of the moment. I don't see that this (as it will no doubt exceed it's 100k target) will add anything. The proposed discussion in parliament will be being held anyway by government and opposition front benches. This topic will get rolled into that. I am not saying that it is not important however it needs considering in the round with all other consumers and customers of energy companies.
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I don't think the signatories trust the government to do anything for business as they haven't done anything yet and have not even hinted they are considering it.

You may have more faith in them :)
 
CapitalOne said:
I don't think the signatories trust the government to do anything for business as they haven't done anything yet and have not even hinted they are considering it.

You may have more faith in them :)
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I believe that now summer holidays for MP's are over or nearly and the Prime Ministerial reset ditto, that the Houses of Parliament will be a clamour for all kinds of action. Meanwhile behind the scenery a lot of actions await signature by a person in authority.

We will see. ;)
 
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