Serviced offices paying most for utilities
Tenants of serviced offices and retail parks are paying some of the worst business electricity rates in the UK and should challenge their landlords to compare prices once a year, according to the business price comparison service Make It Cheaper.
With over 11,000 business energy tariffs, the difference between the cheapest electricity supplier and most expensive is massive. The best business electricity rates currently available, by switching to a new supplier, is just over seven pence per unit (7p/kWh) and just under three pence per unit (3p/kWh) for the cheapest business gas prices. However, landlords who have never bothered to switch suppliers are likely to be on rates twice as high and simply passing the unnecessary cost on to their tenants.
All the information that a landlord – or indeed their tenants – needs in order to find out if cheaper rates are available is a copy of a bill. This will contain the name of the current supplier, unit rate, standing charge, consumption and supply number (MPAN or MPR). Armed with this information, Make It Cheaper will then be able to quote competitive rates and investigate the earliest date a switch can take place.
Jonathan Elliott, managing director of Make It Cheaper, commented: “If you’re unsure of what costs are being passed on to you, then kick up a stink. Energy costs are significant for any business and landlords need to be accountable and transparent in passing them on. Ask what rates they are paying and when they last shopped around for a better deal. If they can’t or won’t answer then the likelihood is that you are being shafted by either their greed or their incompetence.”
Elliott also recommends that serviced office tenants should also ask their landlords whether or not the building’s rateable value has ever been challenged. The current rating legislation provides ratepayers a right to one appeal against their compiled list rateable value which, if successful, can result in savings in business rates payable for up to five years.
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This report is completely unfounded and untrue and whoever wrote it has no understanding how the serviced office industry works. It is simply an attempt to market consulting services in a new field without taking the trouble to analyse it first. Wholly deplorable.