Worse than the pandemic - business on the edge

14th September 2022

Businesses count down the days as imminent collapse of the high street may become a reality

Reading BID has joined other business leaders and over 150,000 businesses from across the UK to urge Government to act on the spiralling energy costs which are proving more detrimental than the pandemic. The #BusinessSOS campaign warns of mass closure and redundancies if immediate and effective action isn’t taken – the true situation that Britain faces today.

The newly formed #BusinessSOS campaign, founded by organisations representing over 150,000 retail, leisure, hospitality and tourism businesses warns harm caused by the spiralling energy crisis is superseding the pandemic with the potential to cause irreversible damage to UK high streets and the economy.

The #BusinessSOS campaign believes mass closures and redundancies are inevitable if Government does not swiftly implement measures that alleviate the critical pressures that businesses, like households, have been facing since April 2022. 

#BusinessSOS three-point-plan to support ailing businesses:

• Reduce VAT
  • Headline rate reduced from 20% to 12.5%
  • Business energy bills reduced from 20% to 5% to match domestic billing

• Business Rates Relief
  • 100% rate relief until 31st March 2023

• Energy Rate Relief
  • A discounted kwh price on all business energy bills

Matthew Sims, Founder of #BusinessSOS campaign and CEO of Croydon BID said,“The new Prime Minister has days to save the high street as we know it. The impending announcement on how the Government will tackle the energy crisis facing businesses will either ensure businesses can remain trading or set in motion mass closures and redundancies. To say the energy crisis is worse that the pandemic is not an understatement, it is the reality facing businesses today and why the clock is ticking for the new Government to provide clarity and introduce measures providing tangible and immediate relief.” 

Alexa Volker, Reading BID Manager, said: “Reading’s businesses are being squeezed from all angles, increasing production costs, difficulties with supply chains, recruitment issues, their own customers’ lack of spending and now rising energy costs. Particularly vulnerable are our independent businesses which make up an integral part of our town. Many are family run and have been around for generations, they are what makes Reading different and gives us vibrancy.  Our town centre is under threat. We need to provide relief for VAT, business rates and energy costs, now! We cannot afford to lose these businesses.”

Andrew Taylor, Founder of #BusinessSOS campaign and Managing Director of Bart & Taylor said, “Without immediate intervention local communities will change forever as they lose their social spaces. For the first time in living memory, energy costs are now greater than rent and increasing on a daily basis in the absence of any intervention or price cap since April. After surviving the pandemic it seems ludicrous that the needs of businesses are currently not being heard and could see the billions of funding provided during the pandemic go to waste.”

Kate Nicholls, CEO of UKHospitality, said, “The hospitality sector is crucial to delivering the business-led growth the new Government is striving for, but we are facing an existential crisis due to soaring energy bills. We’re encouraged by the new Prime Minister’s commitment to tackling energy prices, but we need to see urgent, comprehensive action. As well as a price freeze, we need to see a cut to VAT and a business rates holiday if businesses in the sector are to have any hope of making it through the winter.”