Over 70% of British Pubs Facing Closure This Winter Over Rising Energy Bills - Poll

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - More than 70% of pubs in the United Kingdom are unlikely to survive the upcoming winter unless the government solves the energy crisis, a poll held by UK newspaper The Morning Advertiser showed on Tuesday.

Over 65% of pubs polled by the newspaper said that their utility bills rose over 100%, 30% of them reported a 200% increase, and 8% claimed that their bills rose 500%. Almost 80% of pubs claimed they could not afford the increase in energy prices.

The polled pub operators are calling on the UK government to take measures to help them cope with skyrocketing energy prices, including VAT cuts and caps on energy prices for businesses.

"Proper support and intervention is needed by [the] Government. Even a 20% increase will be unaffordable, never mind 200%," one of the operators told the newspaper.

Some other operators claimed that they were finding it difficult to conclude contracts on the power supply.

"Talking to other operators, they aren’t even being offered new energy contracts at any price due to the sector / operation being deemed 'high risk.' So they can’t even get power even if they can afford it, what a shambles," Frisco Group Managing Director Heath Ball told the media.

In late July, The Guardian cited UK energy-based consulting company BFY Group as saying that British households could receive annual energy bills of over 3,850 pounds ($4,636) in 2023, a threefold increase since the beginning of 2022. A source at one of the UK's largest energy firms told the newspaper that BFY Group's forecast was realistic.

In early August, the Bank of England announced that it had increased the key rate at the maximum pace since 1995 by 0.5 percentage points to 1.75% and upgraded the inflation forecast for 2022 from 10.25% to 13%.

Since 2021, energy prices in Europe have been growing as part of a global trend. After the beginning of Russia's operation in Ukraine and the adoption of several packages of sanctions against Moscow in the West, fuel prices have accelerated the growth, pushing many European governments to resort to contingency measures.