Hopes new energy price cap will help Teesside businesses and residents
Regulator Ofgem has reduced it around 12 percent until June this year
A coffee shop owner in Teesside says the new energy price cap will hopefully mean more money in people's pockets and a boost to local businesses.
Regulator Ofgem has reduced it around 12 percent from this month until June this year.
Many businesses made the decision to close after struggling with the cost of living on top of trying to still recover from the effects of the pandemic.
Emily Bentley runs Bentley's Coffee Shop in Middlesbrough and Stockton and said: "There's no real way of avoiding using energy in the hospitality sector, albeit you can try and cut down with the amount of time that you use such things or keep them on standby but really, rationalising on that isn't an option when you need to serve things hot and it's important for health and safety to do so.
"It's hugely terrifying when people come to an end of any fixed deal or if they're on a variable deal. Energy prices have gone up for some in excess of 300 percent over the last few years. Thankfully we managed to fix our tariff but once that comes off there and the energy market hasn't stabilised, it's going to be a huge worry.
"It's just not becoming a sustainable model for businesses with all of the other price rises, like food, staff costs and all the other costs that you can't pass onto customers, because they wouldn't be able to then eat with you if it's in the hospitality sector and it just becomes a non-starter to be able to continue to trade.
"Hopefully the lower price cap will mean that people won't be spending quite as much on their electricity and gas as they have been, and that will give them some headroom to be able to actually go out and enjoy themselves, spending some money in our great, independent coffee shops, pubs and restaurants that we've got in our region."