y Denis Sheehan MIH, Publisher, H&C News: EDF Energy not passing on emergency government assistance to hospitality.
The Times today is reporting that EDF Energy, one of the UK’s largest energy providers has admitted not passing on emergency government assistance to circa 2,000 small businesses.
In the report EDF admitted to The Times that many businesses had not been granted the correct state-funded discount EDF received. The report goes on to say that government has at last intervened and asked Ofgem, the energy regulator, to examine whether the energy industry is correctly passing on the subsidies they were given to small and medium-sized businesses.
The failure to pass on the financial assistance government provides to energy providers is needless to say causing further enormous financial pressure on businesses desperately trying to stay alive.
The report cites Simon Delaney, owner of the Firbank pub in Wythenshawe, Manchester, saying EDF, his gas provider, is charging him 25 pence per kilowatt hour when it should be capped at 7.5p under the scheme.
Sacha Lord, night-time economy adviser to Andy Burnham, the mayor of Manchester, is quoted saying: “The bigger chains, the ones that have the machine behind them, they’re getting the support. It’s the smaller family-run businesses that aren’t and they’re the ones that we’re going to see drop away.”
The full article can be read here, and if you are worried as to whether your energy provider is not passing on the emergency government assistance you are entitled to, it is well worth a read.
