Energy bill at Tom Kerridge’s pub has jumped from £60,000 to £420,000

Danny Jones

Wait until he hears how much he charges for steak and chips at his gaff…

British chef Tom Kerridge has revealed that the energy bills at one of his pubs have jumped from £60,000 a year to a whopping £420,000 as a result of the energy crisis.

The 49-year-old restaurateur and pub owner says the cost of his usage at just one of his three pubs in Marlow, Buckinghamshire is about to jump from £5,000 a month to £35,000 by December when his current contract is due to end.

Addressing the ongoing energy price hike and cost of living crisis, the owner of multiple eateries and public houses across the country told BBC Radio 5 Live that he believes many pubs and restaurants are going to risk “mothballing” in order to ride out the colder months.

This essentially refers to restaurants and pubs actively choosing to close, in this instance until spring, as a way of saving on their electric and gas output. On the other hand, this also means they would miss out on serious money that could be made during the holiday period.

It goes without saying that many establishments simply cannot afford to shut, having seen the fate that many were resigned to during covid. However, the trend hasn’t stopped just because lockdown has; as Kerridge goes on to explain: “The numbers are so ridiculous and ludicrous that no wonder so many businesses are closing and talking of closing.”

Kerridge calls for energy price cap for businesses

Kerridge goes on to say that while the rest of the country has already been hit with the harsh reality of the revised energy price cap – which could see homes paying more than £5k a year by April 2023 – there is no limit on energy bills for businesses, and the numbers are only expected to skyrocket further.

Despite insisting he will be shopping around for a new energy supplier, as he told The Telegraph, “there’s no way that businesses are going to be able to absorb four, five, six hundred per cent price increases.” For context, the annual bill at his unnamed pub is an increase of 600 per cent.

With that in mind, the chef and TV personality is calling for the UK government to bring in some form of energy price cap for businesses if they are to stand any chance of surviving. Kerridge also caught flak last year after it was revealed he charges £87 for steak and chips at his two Michelin-star pub, The Hand and Flower.

Meanwhile, chief executive of UK Hospitality, Kate Nicholls, says the nation’s pubs “urgently need a package of measures that will ensure the survival of hospitality businesses and thus guarantee jobs and wages for people who need to pay their own rising energy and food bills.”