Suffolk spa prepares for energy costs to treble to £300,000 a year
The government recently announced plans to scale back energy support for businesses
A Suffolk business says it's expecting its energy costs to triple.
Riverhills Health Club and Spa, in Ipswich, says their bills are predicted to rise from £100,000 to £300,000 a year.
This comes just after the government announced plans to scale back energy support for businesses.
Last Monday (9th January 2023), the government announced firms will get a discount on wholesale prices rather than costs being capped.
Dave Courteen is the spa's managing director. He thinks it's a bad move:
"I think the most frustrating thing for us is that swimming pools are a really high intensive use of utilities and yet they've been excluded from the extra benefits and the extra support the government are giving.
"We really think that shows a lack of joined-up thinking from the government, as it regularly speaks about wanting to support the health and fitness of the nation and how that's a way of partly solving the crisis that the NHS faces, but they don't support us to be part of the solution.
"They've left us out of the extra support that's been given to other facilities like museums and libraries, where it's difficult to see how they've got higher utility bills than places with swimming pools.
"We think that's a bit short-sighted and it's really disappointing.
"Whilst we're grateful that there is some extended support from the government. It's not really going to touch the sides in terms of helping us with the extra utility bills that we've got."
Despite increased costs, Dave told us there is no intention to lay off staff:
"Staff are critical to delivering what we do at River Hills.
"We're really proud of the service that they provide. We know they work really, really hard.
"I think if you took the staff away from River Hills it would significantly reduce the experience for members and day spa guests, so our approach has been to invest in the staff through training, as well as recognising that we need to help them with the cost of living increases that they face as well."