Bookshop manager warns of impact of spiralling energy bills

A bookshop manager has warned that small businesses may not survive winter due to “outrageous” spiralling cost of living and rising energy bills.

Darran McLaughlin, who runs Bookhaus in Wapping Wharf, fears business owners will face the possibility of closure as energy bills have risen to levels that are “simply unaffordable”.

“There are a lot of retailers that, if they don’t have a good Christmas this year, will go under,” the 41-year-old told Bristol24/7 at a fuel poverty protest in Cabot Circus on Saturday.

“Businesses just can’t afford to survive and are closing down. That’s just going to be something that happens now: pubs, cafes, restaurants, shops, they will go out of business. We need to do something about this energy crisis.”

The “warm-up” demonstration was part of nationwide coordinated action on what organisers have called the Fuel Poverty Day of Action, part of the Warm This Winter coalition.

Campaigners from Don’t Pay UK, Extinction Rebellion, Fuel Poverty Action and other movements occupied the Bristol shopping centre on Saturday afternoon to bring attention to increasing rates of fuel poverty. Other warm-up protests took place at London’s British Museum and in Liverpool, Glasgow and Brighton.

The groups are demanding the government immediately tackle the energy and cost of living crisis by introducing Energy For All, a universal, free amount of energy to cover people’s necessities like heating, lighting and cooking.

This would be paid for by “ending all public money subsidising fossil fuels, a more effective windfall tax on energy companies and higher tariffs on luxury household energy use”.

Patterson is a causal lecturer in anthropology at the University of Exeter

Also at the demonstration was Dede Patterson with her young child. She said she has not been able to afford to heat her home in since October, adding her and her partner have a “constant anxiety about money and bills”.

Patterson, 32, said: “Energy companies are threatening to triple energy prices and we really don’t have enough money to pay rent as it.

“We can’t choose between paying rent and not being able to put on gas and electricity, especially as we have a toddler – so we have no choice but to fight back against this cost of living crisis.”

National Energy Action estimates that as a result of rising energy costs around 2.2m people have fallen into fuel poverty in the past year.

About the crisis’ effect on the economy, McLaughlin said: “I am not somebody who spends loads of money. I don’t drive, I cycle, I walk, I get the bus. Everyone’s feeling the pinch. I run a business and sales are not going up the way they should be and it’s because people don’t have as much money in their pocket.

“The fact is that having energy prices hike to such a level isn’t just bad for the individual consumer or business, this crisis has a knock-on effect throughout the economy.”

“This country is becoming increasingly unlivable,” he added. “The cost of living is going up to an outrageous degree and the cost of energy is rising to a level that is simply unaffordable.”

All photos: Betty Woolerton

Read next:

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• Fuel price protesters clog up Bristol motorways
• People spending less on Bristol city centre business

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