Tom Kerridge warns of 'colossal tidal wave' facing restaurants as energy bills rocket 'up to 700 per cent'

Chef Tom Kerridge fears many businesses in the hospitality industry will go under this winter as energy bills skyrocket during the cost of living crisis.

The Michelin-starred chef, from Salisbury, has run the Bull & Bear restaurant in Manchester’s Stock Exchange Hotel on Norfolk Street since 2019. He said that he has heard of cases where restaurants are facing rising energy costs of ‘anywhere between 300 to 700pc’ this year.

Earlier this week, Kerridge said energy bills at his three pubs in Marlow, Buckinghamshire had skyrocketed from £60,000 to £420,000. One pub alone is expected to see its usual monthly electricity bill go from £5,000 to £35,000 in December.

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He told the Manchester Evening News the industry is facing a ‘terrifying’ winter and expects many small independent restaurants and pubs to close before the end of the year unless the government intervenes.

Mr Kerridge said: “If you think of the small independent pub where the owners live upstairs, if their electricity bill rises by £70,000 then there is going to be no pub anymore. That’s the end of it.

“There is a colossal tidal wave of issues coming our way unless we face up to it and our government starts to look at it in a very constructive way.”

Mr Kerridge said that the toll on energy bills is affecting every aspect of his business and therefore inevitably leading to increased costs across the board.

“It’s not just us, it’s the bigger supply chains that are being affected too,” he explains. “If we’re having those issues, so are our butchers, our fishmongers and our dry stores. It’s all part of a knock on effect that comes at a cost to our business.”

Mr Kerridge said that