Big Energy Companies Pressuring Small Businesses.

Ypaymore

"Britain’s big energy companies are forcing as many as 250,000 small businesses to pay for their energy up to seven months in advance, it has emerged.
Alistair Buchanan, chief executive of Ofgem, the energy regulator, called the companies — including Scottish Power, British Gas, EDF Energy, E.ON, RWE npower and SSE — to a meeting in London last week to express mounting concern about the practice, which it is feared could put companies into real difficulty.
Stephen Alambritis, at the Federation of Small Businesses, estimates that about one million of Britain’s 4.7 million small and medium-sized businesses have been contacted by their energy companies in recent months and informed of tougher payment conditions — in a move designed to help to shield suppliers from the impact of the growing number of companies entering insolvency.
About a quarter of those — or 250,000 small businesses employing 2.5 million people — have been asked to pay an element of their bills upfront, Mr Alambritis added."

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/utilities/article6804535.ece

energyknowitall

small businesses can try doing something about this by speaking to the companies that sell credit insurance.

E.G, had a case recently with one of my clients who was asked to pay a £200k deposit with an annual spend of around £800k - perfect credit history

Once we had updated atradius I was able to secure good offers from several suppliers with no deposit requirement.