Pubs warn of glass half empty future if government fails to help

Mick Warburton, director at Chantry Brewery, said politicians in Westminster “has been sleepwalking for the last six months”, adding: “We’re heading to a disaster”.

He said the business, which runs three pubs as well as its on-site tap, had got “lucky” as they had tied into a new contract a few months ago but if the prices did go up again, they could face real trouble.

He said: “We probably are one of the lucky ones.

“Businesses have to sign up for contracts for many months — up to three years.

“We tied in with our electrics a few months ago and it went up 400 per cent.

“We have nine different contracts because for the brewery and the pubs.

“We were gobsmacked how much it had gone up.”

Mr Warburton said while domestic consumers could now see their energy bills frozen under new government plans, there was no cap for businesses.

“Other pubs are paying ten times more…it is incredible,” he said.

“When you’re talking about ten times increase you cannot begin to absorb it — you cannot ‘turn this off, turn that off’ as a business.”

One option is to pass rising costs onto the public, and there have been predictions a pint of beer could cost between £15 and £20 in the near future, but Mr Warburton said this wouldn’t happen.

“We cannot pass any cost on because people are struggling anyway,” he said.

“In reality, you’d close pubs first because nobody would come in and pay that amount — and no one wants to charge anybody £15 to £20 for a pint. It’s obscene.”

Mr Warburton said small and medium-sized companies up-and-down the country were preparing for the worst winter ahead.

“At the end of the day, it’s not that people don’t want to pay, they just can’t pay,” he said.

“Most people never default on any bills but if you can’t pay, you can’t pay.

“I feel sorry for pensioners. They are sat at home, they are not out working — at least we can turn the heating off between nine and five or whenever people are at work.”

Mr Warburton said everything started with Westminster politicians seemed to be “detached” from reality.

He added: “They got to intervene – and it should be drastic, because any small or medium-size businesses will be gone.”