BY CARLA BASU

Platform, Glasgow City Centre

With the cost of living being increased in the UK, inflation is at its highest since April 1991. One of the main contributors to the cost of living crisis is the increase in gas and electricity prices following the rise in the Office of Gas and Electricity markets cap on energy prices as of April 1st, 2022.

The Scottish government released a statement saying that the Scottish hospitality sector has been one of the most impacted since the rise in energy prices, with over 60% of hospitality businesses in Scotland saying they had seen production, suppliers or both being impacted by the energy price increase. Soaring energy costs have meant that there has been nearly a 400% increase in gas and electricity bills since September 2022. General Manager, David Carson, from ‘Platform’ in Glasgow City Centre, revealed that, “The electricity bill in here has went up to, close to ten thousand pounds a month. It’s huge the increase, so the impact in general from the cost of living crisis and the energy costs has been massive. It probably costs us around one thousand pounds a day just to open the doors”.

The Scottish Government has already offered the Scottish Hospitality sector financial reliefs of over 800 million pounds. This financial aid includes the UK’s “most generous” small business bonus scheme, which takes over 111,000 properties out of rates altogether as of June 2021, and the lowest non-domestic rates poundage in the UK for the fourth year in a row. I asked the director and spokesperson of the Scottish Hospitality Group, Stephen Montgomery, whether or not he believes the Scottish government should provide more support to this sector.

Although it can be said that the Scottish Hospitality Sector has been majorly impacted by the rise in energy costs, with it being recorded that 1 in 3 hospitality businesses are set to fail from 2022, Events Manager Heather Bedford believes that the hospitality sector will continue to improve. In a recent interview, Heather stated that “November is pretty full with networking events, corporate events, parties, and then moving into our Christmas season with the first one being in the last week of November, all the way through to mid-January. So everything is going very, very well”.

It’s clear that the Scottish Hospitality sector has struggled over the past few years with the Covid-19 pandemic, and now the rise in energy prices. However, some businesses are now beginning to see an increase in customers and profit since the lockdown restrictions have been loosened. Let’s hope we will begin to see a brighter future for the hospitality industry in 2024.