Pub chain boss warns price of a pint could top £10, after government slashes business energy bills support

10 January 2023, 15:17 | Updated: 10 January 2023, 15:24

A pub chain boss has warned the price of a pint could top £10, after the government slashed energy bills support for the hospitality industry.

The Government has confirmed that from April 2023 until April 2024, £5.5billion would be provided in scaled-back support to businesses, companies, charities and other public sector groups.

But the package is around six times less generous than what is currently in place, prompting criticism from bosses in the hospitality industry, who say firms will be hit with a £4.5billion increase in energy bills.

It's feared that many companies wouldn't be able to sustain the price rises.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Charlene Lyons, chief executive Black Sheep Brewery said the support offering was “disappointing” and claimed brewers would be forced to absorb many of the price increases.

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She said: “As a brewer, we've got to be really careful about price increases.

“If we were to push all the price increases over to the consumer, energy, input costs like raw materials, everything, over to the consumer you'd be talking about charging over £10 a pint which is clearly not sustainable.”

The pub boss said this was something she wanted to avoid and that there was "more negotiation to have" regarding what rising costs can be passed onto punters.

Ms Lyons said her firm would get more generous support because of “energy-intensive business” status, though the chain's five pubs sites would lose out.

She added: “Let's be absolutely clear, even the benefit for high-energy usage businesses still isn't a great offer.

“You're talking about the best part of a £200,000 increase in energy bills per annum. And that's not sustainable for businesses, including our own.”

The Black Sheep Brewery boss says following the announcement her business can now plan, but it was going to be hard, as the firm caters to the pub industry, which is also facing the affects of high energy costs.

Ms Lyons also said that many hospitality venues have to decided to reduce opening hours which will affect the income they, and brewers can make.

Business Secretary Grant Shapps defended the scaling back energy support for businesses, saying a 'responsible government has to make those difficult choices'.

When it was put it to him that companies having to put up prices as a result of the move would not counter inflation, the Business Secretary told LBC: "It's fair to acknowledge that when you do anything, make any of these policy decisions, you're always balancing an array of often quite difficult choices.

'In this case, more borrowing and more tax against supporting businesses and what the Chancellor's tried to do is balance both of those things.

'What I am saying is a responsible government has to make those difficult choices between do you put up tax, do you run the risk of higher mortgage rates and loan rates for businesses - we saw what happened with that before - or do you kind of ease back to a normal situation where governments don't normally intervene and support energy bills.'