Nationwide Energy

21/09/2026

Getting renewal quotes soon? Start with one list for every supply.

Write down the contract end date, current rates, supply number and site address for each site.

Then check every quote covers the same list. A lower total is not helpful if a meter or site has been left out.

Need help finding those details? Have your recent bills to hand and call NEC on 02476 328995.

18/09/2026

Renewing your pub's energy contract soon?

Today's Energy Update explains why wholesale price headlines do not translate directly into the rates you are offered, and why the daily standing charge matters too.

There is also an update on smart-meter requirements for smaller business sites, so you can prepare ahead of your next renewal.

Read the full update:
https://nationwide-energy.co.uk/energy-updates/2026-09-18

Need to talk through an offer? Call Nationwide Energy on 02476 328995.

The Gulf risk has reached the pipeline that gets round the Strait of Hormuz and UK gas for October passed 200p a therm, while Europe's storage is at a record low for the time of year; quoted rates have moved much less than wholesale, and from September 2027 a new fixed contract on a smaller site wil...

15/09/2026

Asked for a deposit before a supplier will offer you a contract? Get the working in writing before you agree to it.

There is no fixed cap on business-energy deposits. A supplier may ask for one. But Ofgem's guidance says you should be able to see:

- what the credit check found;
- how the supplier worked out the amount;
- when you get the money back;
- whether paying monthly by direct debit would reduce it.

Ofgem's guide is voluntary, so it is not a guarantee that every supplier will follow it. That makes the questions more important, not less.

If your position improves during the contract, you can ask for the deposit to be reviewed. When the account ends, it should appear on your final bill and be repaid promptly once that bill is settled.

A deposit can be a real cashflow hit for a pub. Do not treat it as a line you cannot question.

Need someone to go through the request with you? Ring us on 02476 328995.

10/09/2026

Does the meter serial number on your electricity bill match the meter at your pub?

Take a photo showing the number printed on the meter and its reading together. Compare it with the meter serial number on your bill. If you've got several meters, note where each one is.

Use the number on the meter itself, even if someone has labelled the cupboard “pub” or “flat”.

If it doesn't match, send the supplier the bill and photo and ask it to check. A replacement meter could explain the difference, so it doesn't automatically mean you've been billed wrongly.

Keep the photo with your account details. It'll save another trip to the meter cupboard when the next query comes up.

08/09/2026

The short row above the 13-digit supply number on your electricity bill can tell you what to ask for next.

The first two digits are called the profile class. 00 means your supply is settled half-hourly: there should be a record of what it used in each 30-minute period. Classes 01 to 04 were traditionally settled another way, and 05 to 08 moved to half-hourly settlement in 2017.

That does not make your bill cheaper on its own. Ofgem found that some businesses paid less after the 2017 change, many saw little difference, and some paid more.

The value is in the detail. A half-hourly file can show electricity being used overnight, when the pub is shut, instead of leaving you with one big number for the year.

Find the S number on a recent bill and ask your supplier two things:

- Is this supply settled half-hourly now?
- Can you send me one month of half-hourly data?

It is a much better starting point than guessing where the usage is going.

03/09/2026

If your energy supplier is going nowhere, you have a free route most people never hear about.

There is no fixed list of documents for a change of tenancy. Every supplier sets its own, and they are genuinely different, which is why nobody can tell you up front exactly what you will be asked for.

What is fixed is the clock. Once the supplier has everything it asked for, Ofgem gives it 10 working days to sort a change of tenancy: open your account, or reject it and tell you why, or ask for something specific. If it drifts past that, Ofgem itself says that is grounds to escalate.

So the useful move is not guessing at documents. It is getting the supplier to say, in writing, everything it still needs, all at once. Then the ten days start and stop being a moving target.

Escalating means the Energy Ombudsman. It costs nothing. Since December 2024 it covers small businesses too, not just the very smallest, and it reckons it can help as much as 99% of businesses in Great Britain. If your pub uses 100,000 kWh of electricity a year or less, you are in.

The bit worth knowing: whatever they decide is binding on the supplier, not on you. If you do not like the answer you can walk away and take it further. They cannot.

How to actually get there. Put in a formal complaint, in writing, and use the word complaint. Eight weeks after that you can go to the ombudsman, or straight away if the supplier sends you a deadlock letter. Keep every email you have sent them with its date.

Stuck on a handover right now? Ring us before you send another document. 02476 328995.

01/09/2026

The energy price cap was in the news last week, up 4% from 1 October. Before you read any of it, one thing: the cap does not apply to your pub.

The price cap protects households on default tariffs. Business energy has no cap. Your protection is the contract you signed: the rate, the end date, and the notice period on it.

Which means the headline number, up or down, tells you almost nothing about your own bill. The questions that do: when does my contract end, what am I paying now, and what would I be offered today?

If you can find a recent bill, you can answer all three. Send us a photo of it and we will do the reading. No forms, no obligation. 02476 328995.

31/08/2026

We have put a new guide on the site, and there is a deadline attached to this one.

From 1 October, VAT on electricity drops from 5% to zero until the end of March, for supplies that count as domestic. Gas stays at 5%.

Your main pub meter almost certainly will not qualify, and the guide says so straight away rather than promising you a saving that never turns up. Where it does matter is the meters you never look at: an outbuilding, a cellar block on its own supply, the flat, a site shut for the winter. Those should already be on the lower rate with no Climate Change Levy, and plenty of them are quietly being charged the full whack instead.

And if you live above the pub but have never sent your supplier a qualifying-use certificate, they are within their rights to charge you 20% on the lot. That is the one to sort before October.

Read it here: https://nationwide-energy.co.uk/blogs/zero-vat-electricity-which-pub-supplies-qualify

Or send us a recent bill and we will check every meter you have. 02476 328995.

29/08/2026

There are two taxes on your energy bill. VAT, which you know about, and the Climate Change Levy, which almost nobody reads.

Since April the levy has been 0.801p for every kWh you use, the same on electricity and on gas. If you are VAT registered you can claim your VAT back. You cannot claim the levy back at all, and you pay VAT on top of it.

Both drop if HMRC counts your supply as domestic. Two ways that happens.

The first is automatic and needs no form. An electricity supply of 1,000 kWh a month or less, or gas of 4,397 kWh a month or less, counts as domestic no matter what it powers. That is 33 kWh of electricity a day. Your main pub meter will be well over it. A second meter might not be, and pubs often have one: an outbuilding, a cellar block, a site closed for the winter. Those quietly get charged the full rate. One catch worth knowing is that if a site has several meters, they get added together for this test.

The second needs a form. If you live above the pub, the share of the energy running your home should be at the reduced rate with no levy on it. Be realistic about the size of that share, because the flat is rarely more than half of what a trading pub uses. Whatever the split, the supplier has to have a qualifying-use certificate on file. No certificate, no reduced rate, and most pubs have never sent one.

Worth knowing before winter: from 1 October to 31 March, VAT on qualifying electricity in England, Scotland and Wales is 0% instead of 5%. Gas stays at 5%.

Dig out a recent bill and look at two things: the VAT percentage, and whether there is a levy line. Or send it to us and we will check every meter you have. 02476 328995.

27/08/2026

Taking on a pub, and the energy supplier keeps asking for one more document?

Sometimes that is a supplier being careful. Sometimes it is not. In December 2024 the regulator, Ofgem, made one business energy supplier pay £1.65m after an investigation that found — among other failures — excessive paperwork demands on new tenants, which risked trapping them on expensive deemed rates while the account sat unresolved.

The paperwork for a pub handover has a defined shape: the signed change of tenancy form, your contract, meter photos with the readings visible, and the lease or completion statement. Ofgem expects suppliers to review a complete pack within ten working days.

If the requests keep moving after that, stop sending documents and get help chasing the account instead.

Free guides on what to have ready before a handover: https://nationwide-energy.co.uk/free-guides-to-help-your-business/