“This isn’t just a chip shop, it’s a community centre,” says Peter Singleton, owner of Jack Spratt’s, a chip shop he’s poured his heart and soul into for the past 25 years. “And I mean that strongly. This place is vibrant and alive.”
Today, he closes for good, after his energy bills went from £8,000 a year to a crippling £27,000 a year almost overnight. He opened up in 1998, naming the shop after his eldest son, Jack, and winning awards along the way, including Oldham’s Chippy of the Year in 2010.
He’s angry. “I’m devastated,” he says. “Totally devastated for my staff. My two girls here have been crying. I’ve been crying. It’s my whole way of life. I’m angry, frustrated, but I can’t be. I can’t let it do that, it’ll make me ill. I have to try and be strong.”
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Peter announced the impending closure of the shop earlier this month, in a notice on the door, explaining that he simply couldn’t absorb the costs facing him anymore. “We will close after 25 years within this community and we would like to thank you all, our loyal customers and friends, for many happy times,” it read.
“On February 16, my new gas contract was up for renewal,” he explains, detailing the timeline with some starkly easy to understand figures. “I was paying 3p a therm. It’s now gone up to 12p a therm, and that’s then plus VAT, so it’s gone up 360%. On the 31st of March, I had to get a new electricity contract. That’s gone up from 13p to 39p, plus VAT and a climate levy charge.
“Basically, my gas and electric bill only has gone from £8,000 a year to £27,000 a year. I told [the electric and gas companies] this means the closure of my business. They say ‘they’re sorry’. This has not been something coming over the last months, it’s been coming for a year."
“From April, the government are offering no help at all. April Fool’s Day, that’s when it really hit me. So I went to my accountant, we did the facts and the figures, but everything’s going up so much. All my suppliers, they’re putting their prices up. Oil has gone from £9 a block to £35 a block. I’ve not got any chance whatsoever of keeping going.”
Earlier this year, the government announced a new Energy Bills Discount Scheme from April 2023 to April 2024 to support businesses with the ongoing cost of electricity and gas. But the details aren't expect to be finalised until the end of this month, and for Peter, it's come too late.
He’s by no means the only business having to call it a day. Horror stories of untenable energy increases are emerging across the catering and restaurant business, with the government’s energy cap now dropped.
“You just have to drive around,” he says. “Shopping centres like the Trafford Centre, the Arndale, any high street. You just see shutters down. Those shops aren’t closed for the day. They’re not having the day off. Those businesses are closed. And after tonight, the shutters will be down on this shop, and that’s it.
“What would I say to the government? Well, that would be swearing.”
He says that the outpouring of support from the local community has been 'overwhelming'. “They’ve been begging me to stay open, get funds going, they’ll do this, they’ll do that. I said ‘look you can’t do this’,” he adds, then he breaks out into laughter. “If you get a fund going, I’ll end up paying more tax!”
As for what he’s going to do now, at 63, he’s two years off collecting his pension, but he plans on putting something back into the community that’s supported him for a quarter of a century.
“I’m going to live off my savings until then, but one thing I’m definitely going to do is search out a homeless centre and go cooking for them,” he says. “I’m going to volunteer, keep myself going and broaden my horizons and meet new people. Help people who need it.”
Reflecting on the business he’s about to shutter, he’s said he’s been slowly winding down over the past couple of weeks, but it’s not really hit him yet. “It’ll hit me when I’m sat down on Tuesday at home on my own,” he says. “That’s when I’ll realise what’s happened. I’ve always said that this place is like a pub that doesn’t sell alcohol.
“The counter is the bar, and we have the crack about football, about everything. We’ve had some fantastic times. Fantastic times.”
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