Small Businesses Burning Money On Energy Bills

Unlike consumer electricity and gas contracts, small businesses are suffering as a result of utility companies tying them in and offering them only small windows of opportunity to switch, according to price comparison site makeitcheaper.com.

The range of tariffs recorded over the last few months has also varied dramatically.  Gas (in pence per kilowatt hour) was recorded at a low of 1.8p in some cases and a high of 4.5p in others.  Differences in electricity prices were even more extreme with a low recorded of 5.5p and a high of 18.8p.

Some of the least competitive tariffs are made worse still for smaller users by standing charges as high as £1.74 per day (£635 a year) being imposed when the norm is around 30 pence per day.

Plenty of scope then for businesses to shop around and negotiate a better deal.

As the director of Ofgem, Philip Davies, said recently:

Some businesses are getting a good deal and others are not. Being a passive customer means that, as the years go by, you are much less likely to get a better deal than an active customer.