Well-known Northampton landlady criticises big energy companies for 'killing' independent pubs and restaurants

A well-known landlady in Northampton has criticised big energy companies for 'profiteering' and subsequently 'killing’ independent businesses.

Numerous businesses in the town - particularly in the hospitality industry - have closed their doors for good so far this year, citing 'spiralling' costs as the main cause.

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Landlady Miranda Richardson quit The Live and Let Live pub in Harpole last year after her energy bills more than doubled in 2022.

At the time Miranda said: "There are hundreds of people in the same position as me up and down the country, they're all slowly sinking. People who run very successful businesses are going to be bankrupt by the end of the year. That's really sad.

"The pub industry has been nothing but hammered in the last three years, every step we take we are hammered. The bigger chains will survive but the smaller community ones, they are not going to be able to cut it."

Chron and Echo caught up with Miranda, who is now successfully running The Squirrels pub in Duston as part of a Greene King franchise scheme, to get her take on the state of the pub and hospitality industry.

She said: "People are coming out. What is killing the industry is big energy companies, water and gas. That is what's killing the industry. I don't know what more you can do.

"It's not going to get any easier. The energy companies are profiteering, that's all they are doing. There is no reason they can't make it cheaper, they are profiteering.”

Asked what she would say to the big energy companies, Miranda simply said 'is it necessary?'.

"We can't as average joes go to an energy company and say 'look what you're doing to my world'.

"But I’d say is it necessary? It's not your product. You don't make the coal, the electricity, the gas, you're just passing it on. So why rip everybody off in the process? All you're going to do is diminish and push everybody out, and how miserable will life be with that."

Asked how she feels when she sees other pubs throw in the towel because of spiralling costs, Miranda said it is 'heartbreaking' and offered words of advice.

She said: "It's heartbreaking to see. I get it. It nearly destroyed my marriage - no business in the world is worth that. No one makes these decision lightly.

"There are lots of people in that situation and I only think it's going to get worse in the next few years. People have kept going, kept trying to be consistent and all it's going to do is push them further and further down the line and further into debt and struggling.

"If it's bigger than you you've got to let it go. When you're clear minded, that's when it will get better. Always back yourself. If you try and stay running in mud you'll never solve anything and you'll destroy yourself in the process.”

Asked if the Government could do more to help, Miranda said ‘money doesn’t fall out of the sky’.

She said: “There are changes to the tax the Government could give us but you can't forget that they gave so much money away during the pandemic that they are trying to get back. Where's it going to come from, out of the sky?”

Asked about the knock on effects of losing community pubs, Miranda added: "They don't stay a community. That's the biggest thing. They end up a diluted version of themselves because they're not going out, mixing being with their friends and knowing what's going on locally to them. And that's a really sad thing. It just becomes a large housing estate, with nothing and no soul."

Click here to read about the rising costs of energy.