Beauty salons struggling to cope with soaring energy bills
As energy and gas bills rise across the UK, the British Beauty Council is urging the government to act as beauty salons struggle to cope with the added costs.
With electricity prices 53% higher in April 2022 compared to previous years, and gas a staggering 95% higher, there are now concerns that, despite 41% of beauty businesses reporting as ‘busy’ after a difficult winter period, high street recovery could be short lived as businesses struggling to survive due to the rising costs.
In addition to higher energy bills, which account for 80% of hair and beauty businesses’ overheads, beauty businesses are having to cope with higher National Insurance bills, business rate increases and the end of the Covid-rent debt moratorium that protected them from eviction for unpaid rent.
In response, the British beauty Council is urging for the Government to review the policy on energy rebates it announced earlier in the year, to include businesses rather than solely domestic households.
Victoria Brownlie, chief policy officer for the British Beauty Council, said, “No one can deny the immense pressure our sector has been under over the pandemic, and it's encouraging to see that business owners still recognise hair and beauty as a viable industry on the high street.
“However, the latest data does not account for the energy price cap increase, which has led to steep price increases for millions of customers. This is on top of staff wages, National Insurance increases and business rate increases, which will be impacting many businesses who were only just starting to get their heads above water.”
It's not only inflation levels affecting beauty businesses, as a new report highlighted the severity of the skills crisis in the beauty industry earlier this year, explaining the key issues and concerns in qualification and training, recruitment and retention and financial pressures.