Isleworth Pub May Close Due to Energy Bills

Royal Oak currently paying £14,000 a month to British Gas

The Royal Oak on Worton Road. Picture: Fuller's

March 31, 2023

The plight of an Isleworth pub, which faces possible closure due to huge energy bills, has been raised in the House of Commons.

Adrianne Mead, the licensee of the Royal Oak along with her husband Simon, told BBC Radio 4 how they had signed up for new contracts with British Gas and Yu Energy last October. The bills for gas and electricity had risen from £3,800 a month to over £10,000 and are about to rise again to £14,000 as government support ends.

Adrianne said, "We've tried very hard to get British Gas and Yu Energy to understand. We'd be paying a lot less if we were able to take out a contract today rather than when we took the contract out in October last year. Both companies have refused. We want Ofgem to take this up. They're forcing small business to the wall while those companies make huge profits. Liquidating the pub is a serious option. We live above the pub so as well as being unemployed we'd also be homeless. We've been given a lot of support by Fullers and Ruth Cadbury MP but the energy companies have refused to budge, despite rates having now dropped."

Brentford and Isleworth MP Ruth Cadbury raised the matter in the House of Commons recently saying, "The Royal Oak in Isleworth is a popular pub that is run by a family, but it is being put under huge financial pressure because of the high cost of its gas and electricity bills.

"Having been forced to sign a new energy contract last autumn, they are stuck paying four times what they were paying last year for energy and they cannot afford it. Despite energy prices tumbling since they signed, British Gas has refused even to review their fixed-term contract. They are now facing closure because of the actions of British Gas, which will not get anything if a small business such as this one goes under.

This prompted Leader of the House Penny Mordaunt MP to reply, "It does sound extremely unfair that British Gas will not engage with that business, as she describes—it sounds very un-British of British Gas to do that.

"I hope that British Gas will have heard what she has said, look at this case and see whether it can find a way through to ensure that that business can continue operating."

Ms Cadbury asked for a debate in the Commons about how pubs and other small businesses were been driven under by high priced fixed-term contracts with energy companies.

We have asked Fuller’s for comment.