Rutland florist seeing a "massive" rise in costs this winter

As part of our #BigSqueeze coverage of the cost of living crisis earlier this year, we spoke to a Rutland florists who told us how they were coping with rising bills.

6 months ago Liz Leaper, owner of Pollen Florists in Oakham, said she was having to make cuts in both her family and business life, after it was announced the energy price cap would rise to just short of £2,000.

Now, she says she's noticed a "massive change" to costs which have made matters even worse.

'The biggest cost to be fair, with the heating and the electricity prices, is the price of flowers - obviously they come in the winter, the price usually goes up around September but this time I've noticed a massive change in price.'

'That's because some growers are not growing in the greenhouses, they've stopped working and they're obviously having to put the price onto the flowers to pay for the heating costs in the greenhouses.'

'At home I think the biggest difference is, we've just put an extra jumper on and I think the news at the moment is so negative that we're putting off putting the heating on - so we're saving that way'.

The Government's Energy Price Guarantee will reduce household energy bills over the next two years, with a typical family paying around £2,500.

Hear all the latest news from across the UK on the hour, every hour, on Greatest Hits Radio on DAB, smartspeaker, at greatesthitsradio.co.uk, and on the Rayo app.