A HIGHLAND hotelier has urged the Chancellor to act as it faces a £53,000 power bill hike.
The sum represents a 70% shift and comes as The Caithness Collection – which includes the Norseman Hotel in Wick, Thurso’s Pentland Hotel and the Castletown Hotel – reaches the end of a 24-month deal next week. Owner Andrew Mackay says the best quote on offer will take the annual cost to almost £130,000.
Dr Liz Cameron (below), chief executive of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce (SCC) says Mackay’s is just one Scots firm set to face an “enormous” pressures as a result of the energy price hike. She has urged Chancellor Rishi Sunak to bring in a new price cap to protect small and medium enterprises (SME).
Sunak’s plan will be laid out on Wednesday and is the second of the year. The announcement coincides with the findings of the 2021 Spending Review and details of the funding for public service over the next three years are expected. But it takes place amidst growing business pressures, with furlough over as the HGV driver and labour shortages continue to cause problems, alongside the hike in energy costs.
Mackay said: “The hospitality sector was one of the hardest-hit throughout the pandemic and recovery is already proving challenging.
“Rising energy costs are creating huge burdens and challenges for the business and it’s vital that Scotland’s businesses are afforded some buffer to guard against energy prices that are hitting them hard.”
The proposed SME energy price cap could include firms transferred to new providers to strengthen the current “reasonable costs of supply” limit SCC says, with firms locked into enforceable multi-year contracts.
Cameron, whose message is backed by Caithness Chamber of Commerce head Trudy Morris, said: “The UK has reached a crisis point over gas and electricity prices, and businesses are feeling the consequences.
“Many businesses in Scotland are still operating in survival mode and continue to recover from the dual challenges of the UK’s departure from the UK and the impact of the global coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s impossible for firms to keep pace with these exorbitant rises in energy prices and these cost pressures are putting many businesses under enormous pressure and resulting in these rising costs pressures increasingly being passed onto the consumer.”
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