Thousands of UK pubs ‘face closure’ without energy bills support: Thousands of pubs face closure without urgent government support to soften the blow from soaring energy bills, the beer industry has said, putting jobs at risk in a sector still battling to recover from the covid pandemic. The bosses of companies owning almost half of the UK’s 47,000 pubs said tenants were already giving notice because they could not cope with energy bills, which are due to rise more than fivefold in some cases. In a letter to the government and the Conservative leadership candidates, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) said mass job losses were inevitable in the absence of help for an industry that employs 940,000 people. It warns that pub and brewing businesses across the UK are at risk of closure due to out-of-control energy bills, with upwards of 300% price hikes reported. Greene King, JW Lees, Carlsberg Marston’s, Admiral Taverns, Drake & Morgan and St Austell Brewery want extra help for an industry also facing big increases in wholesale food and drink prices. Nick Mackenzie, the chief executive of Greene King, said the energy bill blow had come just as the sector was battling back from the ravages of the covid-19 lockdowns, which hit hospitality particularly hard and left many with punishing debts. He said: “While the government has introduced measures to help households cope with this spike in prices, businesses are having to face this alone, and it is only going to get worse come the autumn. Without immediate government intervention to support the sector, we could face the prospect of pubs being unable to pay their bills, jobs being lost and beloved locals across the country forced to close their doors, meaning all the good work done to keep pubs open during the pandemic could be wasted.” Chris Jowsey, the chief executive of Admiral Taverns, said the impact was frightening. He said: “One of our licensees reluctantly gave notice to leave his pub after the cost of electricity increased by 450%, making it impossible to trade profitably. Let’s not forget that for most licensees the pub is not just their business but also their family home.” William Lees Jones, managing director of the JW Lees pub group, said: “We have publicans who are experiencing 300% plus increases in energy costs and some energy companies are refusing to even quote for supply. In some instances, tenants are giving us notice since their businesses do not stack up with energy at these costs. These are not just pubs but people’s homes and the hearts of the communities that they sit in. The government needs to extend the energy cap to business as well as households.” Aside from bills, breweries, which use CO2 in the production of beer, warned they will be affected by the closure of one of the country’s largest CO2 producers, CF Fertilisers – which is halting production due to high energy costs. Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the BBPA, warned that the rise in energy bills would cause more damage to the industry than the pandemic did if it didn’t receive support in the next few weeks. She said: “There are pubs that weathered the storm of the past two years that now face closure because of rocketing energy bills for both them and their customers.”