British Gas quotes pub an eye watering £61,667 for an annual electric bill with a warning it will be ‘lights off for many’

The Rose and Crown pub in Bebington, Merseyside has been quoted an eye watering £61,667 for their annual electricity bill.

British Gas quote the pub their “best energy deal available for” the pub of their size with a “standing charge of 40.00p/day.”

The landlord of the pub posted on Twitter, “‘Just thought I might update you on the latest ‘best’ energy deal available for a pub of our size.”

“We were paying 15p/unit in May. This is the best quote available today.”

In a later tweet they added, “It is grim.

“We’re in a contract until May. Fixed at the bargain price of 37p/unit.

“For us we’ll just have to try and make it through the winter and see what the world looks like next spring.”

Sacha Lord, the night-time economy adviser for Greater Manchester, retweeted the post from the Rose and Crown pub.

Sacha Lord said, “There is no energy price cap for hospitality.

“An untenable situation.

“Without intervention, we will sadly see closures like never before in our lifetime.

“It’s criminal.”

On Friday, he warned on Friday unless there is an urgent energy reduction or rebate, it will unfortunately be “lights off for many” in the pub industry this winter.

He added, “the governments lack of intervention, will now cause more damage to Hospitality, than the pandemic.

“I can see whats coming.

“They can see whats coming.

“Instead they chose to go on holiday. Utterly insulting.”

UK Hospitality CEO, Kate Nicholls, warned that Ofgem’s announcement is a signal of “more pain to come on commercial prices, hitting jobs and viability.”

Nik Antona, chairman of CAMRA said, “Pubs goers and beer drinkers want to see urgent action from government to make sure that the UK’s best beers, brands and breweries can survive these unprecedented times of rocketing energy and ingredient costs and a dip in consumer confidence.

“With businesses having pulled out all the stops to make it through the pandemic, it would be a travesty if more of our local, small and independent breweries were forced to close for good now due to the crisis with the cost of energy, goods, and doing business.”