FMJ Facilities Management magazine providing industry-specific intelligence to FM and property professionals
Following the rollout of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, offices stand to get a potential bill reduction of up to 57 per cent this month compared to if they had to pay expected wholesale energy prices.
This is according to the energy bills insight, conducted by AI and analytics leader SAS, who analysed ONS data from more than 1.6 million business-used buildings to understand how much gas and electricity each sector consumes.
Following the new scheme, offices are currently expected to see an average annual bill per building of £13,710 compared to a forecasted £37,880 if prices had remained at expected winter wholesale costs.
As businesses anticipate their first bill of the six-month scheme, SAS compared average business energy use and the previously expected wholesale price for winter 2022 with the government’s current non-domestic price cap, to understand how the help will affect different industries.
The government has stated that wholesale prices could have risen to as much as £600 MWh for electricity and £180 MWh for gas this winter. The new scheme has seen fixed base rate prices of £211 per MWh for electricity and £75 per MWh for gas.
The research highlighted that businesses that are public-sector focused – healthcare, emergency services and education – will benefit most from the scheme.
While all industries look set to receive bills that are, on average, more than half of what would otherwise be expected, the retail sector had one of the lowest potential bill reductions, amid calls for support for the high street to help keep product costs down.
Under the new scheme, emergency services are likely to be spending the most per building on energy – at an average of £90,250. This is perhaps not surprising given a reliable power supply can be key to saving lives for disaster response companies, the police force and the fire & rescue service.
The industries with the biggest potential reduction in their energy bills:
|
Industry |
Energy cost per building with new price cap (£) |
Energy cost per building with estimated wholesale price (£) |
Potential bill reduction per building (£) |
Potential bill reduction % |
|
Health |
53,190 |
138,460 |
85,270 |
62% |
|
Education and schools |
50,750 |
133,500 |
82,750 |
61% |
|
Emergency Services |
90,250 |
240,000 |
149,750 |
60% |
|
Arts and Leisure |
19,490 |
52,110 |
32,610 |
60% |
|
Hospitality |
10,060 |
27,050 |
16,990 |
59% |
|
Factories |
54,650 |
147,620 |
92,960 |
59% |
|
Offices |
13,710 |
37,880 |
24,160 |
57% |
|
Retail |
7,730 |
21,370 |
13,640 |
57% |
|
Warehousing |
17,270 |
47,890 |
30,620 |
56% |
David Ferguson, a risk management specialist at SAS Uk & Ireland said: “The energy crisis has dominated the news agenda in recent months, and for good reason as consumers and businesses alike are concerned about how to tackle rising costs. It’s understandable that some businesses were – and potentially still are – worrying, as they could be paying over £100,000 extra a year for energy at a time where budgets are already tight.
“The level of price reductions will vary across businesses, depending on their contract type and their circumstances. Our research highlights just how much businesses could be spending on energy – and the importance of all companies using technology to reduce unnecessary energy consumption where possible.”
The Energy Bill Relief Scheme
The Energy Bill Relief Scheme is available to those on a non-domestic contract including:
- businesses
- voluntary sector organisations, such as charities
- public sector organisations such as schools, hospitals and care homes
who are:
- on existing fixed price contracts that were agreed on or after 1 December 2021
- signing new fixed price contracts
- on deemed / out of contract or variable tariffs
- on flexible purchase or similar contracts
The scheme is intended to be of broad application but there may be very limited exclusions
Discounts are currently being applied to energy usage between 1 October 2022 and 31 March 2023.
According to Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index, worldwide parcel volume is likely to double in the next five years, with the UK showing the highest increase in carrier revenue of all 13 countries in the Index.
Alongside a huge uptake in the volume of parcel volume and spend, post pandemic, the adoption of hybrid working patterns means that FMs need to find ways to enable staff to book / host collaborative meetings in available workspaces and to find desk, office and parking spaces by utilising automation and data capture to enable site governance.
Yet a recent survey by FMJ in partnership with Pitney Bowes found that 20 per cent of recipients are still using manual paper-based visitor systems, which doesn’t fit with their top priority – to maintain a safe and operational environment.
This overwhelming reliance on paper-based systems is causing many respondents bottlenecks, resulting in a lack of efficiently in logging and tracking packages and people coming into the organisation.
In this webinar, Gary Abbott Director of Business Development and Stuart Bushaway, Head of Dealers Operations and FM Relationships at Pitney Bowes will outline the main findings of the two surveys and what this could mean for FMs. This will be followed by a discussion, chaired by FMJ Editor Sara Bean comprising Wayne Young – Facilities Manager, Just Eat Takeaway.com & Simi Gandhi-Whitaker, Strategic Technology Director, Connected Workspace, Mitie.
Register for the webinar here.
