A Yorkshire hotels boss has told how the company's annual energy bills have soared from £600,000 to a whopping £2.8m.

Wayne Topley, managing director of Cedar Court Hotels Yorkshire, which includes four venues atAinley Top,Huddersfield, Bradford, Harrogate and Wakefield, spoke out after receiving the bills which would have instantly knocked out many other operators.

Energy costs have soared because the conflict in Ukraine has reduced the supply of Russian gas. Prices also rose because demand for energy rocketed after Covid restrictions ended.

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Mr Topley said: "It's unbelievable. Our bills have gone from £600,000 to £2.8m, it's a game-changer though, we will get a government support grant of £800,000."

Hotels are notoriously energy-hungry with large areas that need constant heating and as Mr Topley says, no decent hotel is going to start encouraging customers to wear vests and jumpers. Despite the scary bills he has been quick to immediately put in measures to try to bring costs down to some kind of manageable level.

At theBradfordhotel, every piece of gas-fuelled equipment has been taken out of the kitchen and replaced with cheaper electric induction cooking. In addition, £300,000 has been spent on solar power there.

Every aspect of the business which generates fuel costs has been looked at from replacing windows with more heat-sensitive ones to spending £380,000 on a ground-source heat pump at Ainley Top to generate their own heat without the need for gas or electricity. A further £200,000 has been signed off on replacement windows.

£100,000 has been spent on refurbishing Ainley Top's Yorkshire Suite which caters for 300 diners. And upstairs all its 113 bedrooms are being refurbished over the next six months at a cost of £1.5m.

Mr Topley says: "This hotel deserves that investment. I think this area is a great place to invest in."

As for its expensive-to-run swimming pool, he says he is looking at various options including letting it out privately and filling it in with it becoming a community space or a "posh village hall".

Although the UK is set for a recession in the new year he says he is still confident about the future with wedding enquiries up from last year and still plenty of people and organisations interested in booking events. At its Ainley Top venue, the hotel has an excellent relationship withHuddersfield Town FCand other major football clubs which means its services are constantly in demand.

Major companies such as pharmaceutical manufacturers Thornton Ross atLinthwaiteand builders Marshalls are still good clients and they get a lot of enquiries from film crews needing to stay somewhere for local projects with Yorkshire being one of the most filmed areas in the UK.

But he says: "There will be several businesses that choose to close their doors come January as the good times from Christmas parties come to an end and the reality of what January looks like dawns. For example, our bills have gone up fourfold. Despite that, we are still profitable though we have to work harder and our business is viable.

"I'm going to be using one-third less utility than a year ago with all the actions that I have put in place. But I'm afraid a lot of pubs and bars and restaurants going to find it very hard to tread through the first quarter of 2023 and if government support is not extended everyone will find it even harder."

He is proud too of how the group has supported its 300 members of staff during the cost of living crisis. On December 1 they were given an additional 5 per cent rise of top of a 12 per cent pay increase and offering financial guidance on how to deal with bills.

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