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Energy bills shock: 40% standing charge surge hits businesses

ended 14. April 2026

Your energy bill has just gone up — and there’s nothing you can do about it. Standing charges for businesses have surged by around 40%, meaning you’re paying more before you’ve even switched a light on, Business111 said.

Cut your usage, tighten your belt, close early — it won’t matter. This is a fixed cost you can’t escape, and for small and micro businesses already juggling rising wages, taxes and falling demand, it’s yet another hit to cashflow that you simply can’t control.

If you’ve examined a recent energy bill you may have noticed your standing change has soared. Energy standing charges are rising because the UK is rebuilding its electricity grid. The cost is being recovered through fixed daily charges rather than unit rates.

Standing charges apply even when you’re closed, which hits micro businesses in retail and hospitality, small manufacturers and workshops, salons and florists. For microbusinesses with thin margins, a 40% rise in fixed energy costs is significant. A small shop using little electricity pays the same standing charge as a large one.

  • What is your reaction to standing charges of businesses going up by 40%?
  • What are the consequences for businesses?
  • How should we be helping businesses, rather than hindering them?

Responses asap this morning please.
 

2 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Samuel Mather-Holgate
Managing Director & IFA at Mather and Murray Financial
Whilst there is regulation around standing charges for residential customers, businesses don't benefit from the same safeguards. This has led to massive hikes in standing charges. Energy companies say these are needed for the maintenance of the infrastructure that services customers, but in reality there are few industries where small customers pay more than larger customers for the product they consume. The energy industry needs reform, and in particular for SMEs who always seem to bear the brunt when prices spike,
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Colette Mason
AI Ethics Consultant at Clever Clogs AI
The same soaring energy costs that just killed OpenAI's Stargate UK data centre project last week are now landing on small businesses, except nobody's writing them a press release about "pausing until conditions improve." Small businesses can't pause. They just pay. Or close.

The government's flagship AI investment programme collapsed (in part) for the same underlying reason: UK industrial electricity prices are the highest in Europe, and getting worse. Unfavourable regulation finished the job. The energy costs that made a multi-billion tech company walk away are the same costs now hollowing out small business margins.

One gets diplomatic language about "exploring long-term conditions". The other gets a crushing bill.

Even with sweetened preferential rates, OpenAI felt the price was too rich and ended the deal for now. For businesses already crippled by thin margins, this is yet another unavoidable hole below the waterline.