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MORE than a fifth of restaurants and bars have cut their hours over the past three months in a bid to save money on soaring energy bills, according to new figures.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) business insights and conditions survey, published on Monday, found that the hospitality industry, which employs around one in 14 British workers, has been particularly affected by rising energy prices.
More than one in 20 firms in the sector (6 per cent) said that they planned to stop trading for two or more additional days a week.
For food and drinks firms, 6 per cent said they had already done this in the past three months, while one in five said they had reduced the number of trading hours.
Bosses told the ONS that they were considering laying off staff if energy prices continued to rise.
One hotel manager said that they had closed off sections of the hotel and cut down menus in a bid to save costs, while a pub manager said energy prices were “killing the business.”
Across the hospitality industry, 23 per cent of businesses said energy prices were their principal concern for October, which was similar to November at 22 per cent.
This suggests that the government’s new Energy Bill Relief Scheme, which provides a discount on energy costs for businesses, has done little to reassure hospitality firms.
It comes after a joint report by UK Hospitality, the British Beer and Pub Association, the British Institute of Innkeeping and Hospitality Ulster, released last month, found that more than a third of hospitality business could go bust by 2023.