A unique independent café in the heart of Newcastle has called for more clarity from Liz Truss and the Government over the support that will be offered to businesses for rising energy bills.
Rhiannon Oxley, 32, and Drew Gotobed, 33, opened Meeple Perk in November 2018, bringing something new to Newcastle as the city’s first dedicated board game café. Born from a love of games, coffee and great food, over the past four years the café has become a much-loved hub in the city centre for people to get together.
But after managing to pull through the Covid pandemic, the Heaton pair found themselves facing yet another challenging time for the business. With the cost of living crisis impacting spending habits across the country and energy bills projected to soar this winter prior to Liz Truss' announcement on Thursday, Rhi and Drew were left facing the prospect of closing down their beloved café without help from the Government.
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As with many other independent businesses, the cost of living crisis has been a double blow for Meeple Perk. “Just before lockdown, things were going great - we had really found our feet and got a good customer base,” Rhi said.
“But then the lockdown hit, and we’ve spent the last year doing that same thing again of building the customer base back up. Now, with the cost of living and energy crisis, it just feels like things are going well for us when something else happens.”
Under the predicted price cap rise, the café’s energy bills were expected to multiply by five times the amount that Rhi and Drew are currently paying - from around £3,500 to upwards of £17,000. Hoping to make fun plans for the café's Christmas period, the pair were instead faced with considering whether to close the café and lose their livelihood by the end of the year.
Rhi and Drew said they have explored every avenue to increase the money coming in, including repricing the food menu half a dozen times in the past year as food prices continue to rise, but said that there is no way to keep things going without help from the Government. Rhi has worked out that just to break even, they would need to bring in enough money that the café would then meet the threshold to pay corporation tax - putting them back at a significant loss.
“We just can’t afford for our energy bills to be the same as our rent - and with the maths I did, we’d probably have 'till Christmas with the money we’ve got in the bank,” said Rhi. The pair called on the Government to step in to introduce a cap on energy bills - and while Liz Truss announced that the average household energy bill would be frozen at £2,500 a year and promised the "equivalent" for businesses, the café says that they need more clarity on what this support will look like.
“No small business is going to be able to survive this if the Government doesn’t do anything,” Drew said before the announcement. “You can’t all of a sudden expect businesses to pay five times their current bills - especially at a time when people are going to have a lot less money to spend.”
Liz Truss said that energy bills support for businesses would be put in place for six months, compared to two years for households, after which a review would determine which "vulnerable industries" will be the target of further support. After hearing the Prime Minister's statement, Rhi and Drew said that they welcome the support for households, which will help their customers as well as them at home - but added that they need more information from the Government when it comes to the help that businesses will receive.
"We hope this gives people the ability to not worry too much about their bills and that they will be able to afford the occasional treat weekend out to their favourite restaurants or cafés," they said. "Unfortunately, we haven't seen as positive an announcement for business.
"'Equivalent support' for business for six months gives us absolutely nothing to go on, and more details are urgently needed for businesses to be able to make important decisions. It's hard to say if the six months of support is going to be good or not as we have no idea what it is, so we are still just as worried as we were previously."
The pair said that they would like to see the Government specify what the capped price per unit and capped daily charges will be for businesses, as well as an announcement on which vulnerable industries will be supported beyond the initial six months. They have also called for targeted support to be introduced for specific industries, such as hospitality.
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