'Just not sustainable': Marks & Spencer boss accuses Labour of driving up energy bills
The boss of Marks & Spencer has accused Labour of pushing up energy bills.
Stuart Machin, who runs one of Britain’s biggest High Street chains, said that government levies now make up more than half of the retailer’s energy costs.
He said these extra costs have 'nothing to do with the price of oil or gas'.
The comments came as the UK faces the biggest hit to economic growth from the Iran war of any major economy, according to a warning from the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
'Over the last few years the "policy costs" on our energy bill have skyrocketed,' Mr Machin wrote on LinkedIn.
The M&S boss – who has run the company since May 2022 – said: ‘These are the tariffs that [the Government] place on our bills to fund their policies, and have nothing to do with the price of oil or gas. They now make up over half our bill. It’s just not sustainable for UK businesses.’
M&S chief executive Stuart Machin with Rachel Reeves
Households and businesses are already facing increased petrol and diesel prices as a result of the war in the Middle East.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has promised targeted support for some households with their energy bills.
But businesses are unhappy with so-called ‘non commodity costs’ in which the government adds green energy levies to the wholesale price of energy.
From next month, charges have been added to business energy bills to help pay for the construction of the Sizewell C nuclear power station and more electricity pylons.
Increases will come hand-in-hand with hikes to national minimum wages while many firms will also have to fork out higher business rates from April.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, told the Financial Times that it is lobbying the Government to ‘focus on its energy policy and the pipeline of additional policy costs that are about to impact businesses’.
It is not just shops who will be impacted as other businesses operating on the High Street are also concerned.
Michael Kill, the chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), which represents 10,000 businesses in the night-life sector, said such energy levies were ‘feeding into’ prices paid by consumers.
He warned that the UK ‘continues to struggle with indecision and short-termism’ with pressure heaped on ‘already vulnerable sectors’ and hitting jobs.
‘The reality is stark: if businesses cannot afford to operate, they cannot afford to employ,’ Mr Kill added.
A Government spokesman said: ‘We know that businesses across Britain will be concerned about the impact on their energy bills from events in the Middle East.
‘Wholesale costs are the single largest component of energy prices.
‘Our mission for clean power by 2030 will get us off the roller-coaster of fossil fuel prices, to cut bills for businesses and households for good.’
And it is expected that shoppers will start to see the impact of the war at the supermarket tills in the coming months.
'While it can take several months for cost rises to filter fully through to shop shelves, the cost of the Iran conflict will be felt by shoppers this year,' Karen Betts, chief executive at the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), warned this week.
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