Business rates - should i fix or not

sausagedragon

I volunteer for a charity and our energy contracts are coming to an end shortly - all the deals I have been offered are working out cheaper than the current variable rates but upto x times more than what we have been paying - gas x3, elec x7 is this correct very worried that we may not be able to carry on our work once the energy contracts end.

Robin9

If you are coming towards the end of  a long term fix  then you will find the rates offered to be much higher.


Just checking - what rate of VAT are you paying ?

sausagedragon

the lower 5% rate as we sign the waiver.

tacpot12

If this situation is going to affect the viability of the charity, it needs raising with the trustees. It might be necessary to  shut down the charity.

I expect to be in a similar position next year when our four year fix comes to an end. I'm Treasurer for a sports club. I doubt our members will be happy with the increase in subs that we will need to cover this, but I expect most will pay up because every club now has these costs - our members could not find anywhere cheaper than to undertake our sport. Appreciate the situation is very different for a charity, and it is a great pity that a charity should have to stop helping people because it can't sustain itself.

QrizB

sausagedragon said:

all the deals I have been offered are working out cheaper than the current variable rates

Energy prices are coming down again. I'm surprised that the deals are both more more expensive than the variable rate, and by such a large multiplier.

Octopus's 12 month business tariffs are about 28p/kWh for electricity and 7.5p/kWh for gas:

https://octopus.energy/tariffs/

sausagedragon said:

.. upto x times more than what we have been paying - gas x3, elec x7

I could imagine a legacy tariff offering has at 2.5p/kWh, but have you really been paying 4p/kWh for electricity until now?