UKHospitality (UKH), a UK trade association representing the hospitality sector, has called on the government to introduce a package of targeted interventions to help businesses manage rising energy costs.
In a letter to Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, UKH set out a six-point plan that aims to ease the impact of higher energy prices on hospitality businesses across the country.
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The proposals include requiring energy suppliers to make new contracts available to hospitality businesses, alongside a cap on the level of deposits suppliers can demand.
The association wants an end to sector-based profiling practices that it says have previously resulted in hospitality operators being unable to secure energy contracts.
It is seeking fiscal measures to assist businesses coming off fixed-term energy contracts.
UKH also wants a halt to new levies on hospitality energy bills to fund other sectors and a review of the existing nuclear levy.
The association added that the government should also keep non-energy charges on bills, costs beyond the unit price of energy, to an absolute minimum.
In addition, the organisation has requested the government to refer the business energy market to the Competition and Markets Authority, with the aim of addressing competition problems.
It also recommended reducing red tape by postponing costly, burdensome regulations currently under consultation, including the Deposit Return Scheme, advertising restrictions, and mandatory reporting requirements.
UKH chief executive Allen Simpson wrote: “Businesses within the hospitality sector are increasingly concerned about the impact of the crisis in the Middle East and how this will affect our already strained sector.
“We have been clear that hospitality is facing three consecutive challenges: the direct costs incurred from higher energy prices, higher costs passed through the supply chain and a customer base that cannot sustain raised prices.
“Fixed-term contracts are providing some short-term protection, but this will fall away for many in the coming months. Rural venues are already seeing higher prices due to a doubling of the price of heating oil.
“We are urging the government to urgently pull together, in discussion with industry, targeted measures that support the hospitality sector.”
UKH has around 750 members and represents more than 123,000 venues, including coffee shops, hotels, holiday homes, pubs and restaurants, among others.
