A North East social club boss has branded his recent gas and electric bill “absolutely criminal” after he renewed his contract this month.

James Ces, club secretary at Vale of Derwent Social Club in Rowlands Gill, Gateshead, received his new contract after prices in gas and electric skyrocketed, laying bare the climbing prices compared to what he was initially paying.

Originally, Mr Ces was paying an average of £181.33 a month for his electricity at 15.72p per kilowatt hour. This has now increased to a staggering average of £642.49 per month and an increase of £461.16 per month.

Meanwhile, when it comes to gas, the club secretary was originally paying an average of £112.65 a month for gas at 3.20p per kilowatt hour.

This has now shot up to an eye-watering average of £2,064.72 a month at 63.10p per kilowatt hour.

The government has recently announced cuts to energy costs for business which Mr Ces will help but “just isn’t enough.”

He added: “It’s criminal, it’s absolutely criminal and I don’t know how places are going to survive.

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“The government help just definitely isn’t enough, I’m in regular contact with club stewards, secretaries and pub owners and they all feel the same.

The Northern Echo: James Ces's spreadsheet showing his energy costs Picture: JAMES CESJames Ces's spreadsheet showing his energy costs Picture: JAMES CES (Image: Picture: JAMES CES)

“There’s a social club in Consett, they’ve just had an electric bill in for last month and it was £2,500 - that’s for a month.

“The number of places that are closing is just unbelievable. There’s far too many, far too many.”

Mr Ces said he has witnessed first-hand other clubs, bars and restaurants closing down due to soaring energy costs, including the Punch Bowl in Stanley, County Durham.

He added: “That was a thriving restaurant mind, but it’s like on top of the energy costs it’s the supply chains and everything you buy it’s just rocketing through the roof, and I can’t see it coming down.

“I’ve just seen on the television they were talking about how the price of certain things in supermarkets like cheese and such has nearly doubled in price.”

However, despite the shocking prices, he said he was prepared to give it “a good crack” and just “see what we can do - that’s all we can do.”

He added: “We’re going try and put some extra things on, once or twice a month on Sunday we’re going to reduce the hours on Friday to save six hours in wages and gas and electric.”

“A lot of places in the local area are being forced to reduce their hours, a lot of people shutting earlier in the week.

“It’s just getting out of hand, it really is getting out of hand I think.”

Aside from the energy prices, Mr Ces he was stunned to find that supply costs had also increased, such as kegs of beer rising by £5.

He said: “Another thing that’s stunned us is that although they haven’t put duties on beers and that, I got my delivery on Thursday, they put the beer up.

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“They put it up a fiver a keg before this mini-budget, so they must have thought it would be going up.

“But that won’t come down again when I place my order, those prices will remain the same.”

He concluded: “It’s just going to be a difficult winter and householders and businesses.

“I really do think that a lot of them will collapse.

“It’s just heartbreaking because you’ve built the business up for the 10 to 15 years for it just to go belly up.”

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