Energy bill support plea from brewers and pubs

Pubs and brewery bosses have written to the government to ask for support with their towering energy bills this winter.

Bosses of six of the UK's largest breweries and pubs said soaring costs would result in closures and "real and serious irreversible" damage.

Unlike households, firms aren't covered by a regulated energy price cap.

This means there is no protection from suppliers charging the maximum amount per unit of energy.

One of the bosses who joined the warning, William Lees Jones, managing director of the JW Lees pub group, said publicans have been experiencing 300% increases in their energy costs.

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 urged immediate intervention, including a support package and a cap on the price of energy for businesses.

The BBC has contacted the government for a response. It has previously said no policy will be announced until the new prime minister takes office in September.

On Friday the energy regulator Ofgem, which also sets the price cap on household bills, said the cap would rise by 80% in October.

Many energy intensive businesses across various sectors will also face cost pressures that could be passed on to consumers through higher prices.

Breweries, which use CO2 in the production of beer, have also warned that they will be affected by the closure of one of the country's largest CO2 producers, CF Fertilisers - which is halting production due to high energy costs.

Nick Mackenzie, the boss of Greene King - one of the UK's largest pub groups, with over 3,100 pubs - said the sector needed "immediate government intervention".

"We could face the prospect of pubs being unable to pay their bills, jobs being lost and beloved locals across the country forced to close their doors, meaning all the good work done to keep pubs open during the pandemic could be wasted," he added.

"Government needs to extend the energy cap to business as well as households," William Lees Jones wrote.

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

Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the BBPA, warned that the rise in energy bills would cause more damage to the industry than the pandemic did if it didn't receive support in the next few weeks.

"There are pubs that weathered the storm of the past two years that now face closure because of rocketing energy bills for both them and their customers," she added.

It comes as the number of pubs in England and Wales continues to fall, hitting its lowest level on record, according to new analysis.

The research found that there were 39,970 pubs in June, down by more than 7,000 since 2012.

According to Altus, who compiled the report, 400 pubs in England and Wales closed last year and some 200 shut in the first half of 2022 as inflation started to eat in to profits. That brought the total number of pubs down to its lowest since Altus's records began in 2005.