Energy prices named as main concern by 15% of UK businesses for November 2026

One in seven UK businesses — 15 per cent — named energy prices as their main concern heading into November 2026, according to figures posted by the Office for National Statistics from its Business Insights and Conditions Survey. The sharpest concentration was in transportation and storage, where 33 per cent of businesses flagged energy prices as their primary worry, compared with 25 per cent in accommodation and food service activities.

Those numbers sit against a broader backdrop of widespread unease. In late September 2026, 72 per cent of businesses reported some degree of concern about energy prices — and in accommodation and food service activities that figure reached 91 per cent. The gap between “some concern” and “main concern” suggests many businesses are absorbing the pressure without yet ranking it above other pressures such as taxation, inflation, or worker shortages, all of which featured in the survey’s list of possible answers.

Fuel costs tell a similar story. Some 73 per cent of businesses reported some degree of concern about fuel-price increases in the same late-September period, with 60 per cent of those in transportation and storage saying they were very concerned — the highest proportion of any sector surveyed.

The BICS runs fortnightly and measures how economic conditions are affecting businesses across the UK. The 15, 33 and 25 per cent figures come from ONS data as reported; they could not be independently cross-checked against the underlying dataset from the material available, and the survey results carry the usual caveats around sample size, response rates and confidence intervals.

Worth keeping in mind: Ofgem’s domestic price cap for October to December 2026 stood at £1,723 per year for a typical household — but that figure covers domestic tariffs only and does not reflect what commercial operators pay.