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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Joanna Partridge

‘Lost generation’: small businesses folding across UK as energy bills land

Andrew Crook, the owner of the Oh My Cod fish and chip shop in Coppull, Lancashire
Andrew Crook has pulled the plug on his fish and chip shop after his energy supplier quoted a nearly eightfold rise in daytime electricity rates. Photograph: Joel Goodman/The Guardian

The energy crisis is tearing through Britain’s high streets, with warnings on Friday of a “lost generation” of small businesses, as the impact of soaring gas and electricity prices begins to hit cafes, restaurants, shops and salons.

Across the UK, growing numbers of traders are closing their doors for good in the face of unaffordable costs driven by record inflation, with some reporting tenfold increases in utility bills.

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