The devastated owners of an Edinburgh salon were horrified this week to find their energy prices are set to take a huge jump.
Siblings Allan and Aileen Caldow, who run Caldow's salon in Haymarket, say they’ve never seen anything like it in 15 years of business. Their latest cost estimates from British Gas suggest what was once an average monthly bill of £350, could now cost up to £1447.28.
The Caldow’s were given an estimated annual cost of £10,227.60 - a cost which they’ve said is ‘unsustainable’.
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Co-owner Allan, who discovered the price hike this week, told Edinburgh Live: “I looked in May to get an estimate, and even since then it’s doubled. At one point we were paying 14 pence per kilowatt-hour and now they want 60 pence.
“So my energy bill could go up to almost £1500 a month.”
Allen and Aileen, who opened the salon in 2007, have been forced to consider their options moving forward.
Allan told us: “There’s definitely a part of me that’s thinking maybe we’d be better off shutting.
“We thought about getting a smaller shop, but it’s a bit of a catch-22 because if we do that we’d pay more rent - which sounds mad but it’s true. Obviously we’d have to change location as well.
“We’ve only just raised our prices, we can’t do it again - our clients will find someone cheaper, someone freelance or a smaller business that doesn’t have the costs we do.
Aside from rising energy prices, Caldow's are also dealing with increasing costs with suppliers and other bills that are piling up. Allan told us: “This isn’t the only cost issue we’re having - but it is the major one.
“We didn’t have to pay council tax for a few years, and then that’s just kicked back in again. We are managing, but it’s not going to be long before we’re paying out more than we’re bringing in.”
“I just don’t understand how it can be justified, I don’t understand how they’re getting away with it.
“I don’t understand how these companies can make so much money and then charge me four times the amount they were before. Something isn’t right, something is broken.
“Businesses are at the backbone of communities, and energy companies are destroying us.”
British Gas confirmed to Edinburgh live that agents have written to Mr Caldow informing him his contract is ending and inviting him to renew. Bosses said he was on a contract from 2019 that expires on September 30 this year and the unit price from his contract was fixed when the wholesale cost of energy was much lower than now.
They assured the salon is only charged for the energy it consumes via a smart meter and its annual consumption has increased since the same time last year, contributing to the increased expected price.
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