This autumn, the cost of gas and electricity for a typical UK household is expected to rise from £1,663 to £1,723 a year.

The change, due to higher wholesale gas prices, will be easy enough to spot on a household bill. But those rising costs can also affect people in less obvious ways, through the price of a coffee, for example, or a pub lunch or haircut.

That’s because the energy price cap – which limits the unit rates suppliers can charge – applies only to households on certain tariffs. It does not apply to the energy bills of small businesses.

Many cafes, bakeries, pubs and shops arrange their own energy contracts with suppliers, either directly or through a broker, sometimes fixing the unit price for several years.

What each business pays depends on the type of contract and the deal it secures. And not all businesses will be affected at the same time. Two cafes, for example, operating on the same high street, might be using similar ovens, fridges, coffee machines and lighting. But if one signed a fixed energy........

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