As if Coronavirus and Brexit weren’t big enough challenges already, UK businesses of all sizes and industries are now grappling with surging energy prices too.
Across the world, we are seeing the price of gas and electricity increase sharply while economies are trying to rebound. Everyone is feeling the effects of the surge in energy prices, but the results of our monthly UK Business Tracker found that businesses are also feeling the impact.
Over the past few months, rising energy prices have quickly become one of the biggest obstacles that businesses are facing, on par with Brexit and Coronavirus. 54% of UK businesses reported they have been negatively impacted by the rising energy prices.
This compares to 40% experiencing negative impacts due to Brexit, and 65% experiencing negative impacts due to the Coronavirus crisis.
The new expensive electricity bills are clearly top of mind for UK organisations. Of over 20 possible challenges presented to the UK businesses in our survey, energy prices were the number one significant challenge they expect to face in the year ahead. Even among the other emerging and growing challenges this year, such as supply chain issues and increasing threats of cyber-security, rising energy prices is now the biggest risk.
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