Serve Warmer Beer to Save on Bills, Miliband Tells Pubs

Pubs should serve warmer beer and turn off ovens to save money on their energy bills, Ed Miliband has said, amid a crisis in the sector set to be made worse by spiking energy prices. The Telegraph has the story.

The Energy Secretary has launched an advice tool aimed at hospitality businesses, which he hopes will ease the burden of rising costs in the struggling sector.

The tool encourages firms to reduce unnecessary electricity use by turning off bottle fridges overnight and to monitor hotspots such as extraction systems, ovens and lamps.

It comes as fears mount that more pubs are being pushed to the brink, as the conflict in Iran sends energy prices soaring.

Analysis by the Telegraph last weekend suggested that the spike in energy bills will heap an extra £169 million a year onto pubs’ costs, with Wetherspoons chief Sir Tim Martin saying businesses would have no choice but to push up prices.

Businesses claim they are being quoted energy rates around 30% higher than in February, before the US and Israel launched their first strikes on Iran. Oil prices have risen from $73 (£55) a barrel before the strikes to hover around $100.

Industry leaders on Tuesday said the Government tool would not save pubs from the “eye-watering bills” that were crippling hospitality businesses, with landlords ridiculing the suggestions as “groundbreaking stuff”.

Emma McClarkin, the Chief Executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, said: “There are a host of appliances that you simply cannot turn off, many for health and safety reasons, so it is not just help with reducing eye-watering energy bills that the beer and pub sector needs the Government to help with, but the overall cumulative costs of doing business, including disproportionate tax bills.”

However, she said: “With the typical pub making just 12p profit on every £5 pint, it’s essential for landlords to save money on their energy bills wherever they can, with the added bonus of reducing their carbon footprint.” …

Pub owner Andy Lennox urged ministers to slash VAT rates for British hospitality firms rather than offer them simplistic energy-saving suggestions.

Lennox ran a campaign last year to ban Labour MPs from hospitality venues across the country, which ultimately forced Labour to announce an emergency support package for pubs.

He said: “To be told to turn the lights off overnight really is groundbreaking stuff. Thank goodness someone in Whitehall finally cracked it. Decades of hospitality experience across the country, and the answer was sitting there all along.

“In reality, this is yet another short-sighted, bureaucratic, headline-grabbing load of rubbish. Any half-decent operator already runs an efficient kitchen, manages energy properly and watches costs like a hawk. That is Hospitality 101.”

Worth reading in full.