Business Bites - a new monthly business column

I’m delighted to launch this monthly business column where I’ll be sharing some of my thoughts on the issues that face businesses today. I lead a global marketing and communications agency that is headquartered in Chichester and serves international B2B clients in the technology and telecoms space. We live in a great part of the world, and there is a real appetite for local businesses to share their experience and network. You only have to see how popular the Corporate Ladies Club has been since its launch a little under a year ago.

The Corporate Ladies Club is an initiative of the forward thinking Tangmere based charity Dementia Support, which operates from Sage House. With the support of Goodwood, that provides a number of its venues free of charge, the network hosts monthly meetings of local women in business. The feedback we get is amazing, and if you’re a woman in business I’d urge you to sign up for an event and see how inspirational a morning networking can be!

The purpose of this column is to offer some thoughts on issues that are impacting real local businesses today. Something particularly close to my heart is remote working and supporting the staff who work that way to pay their energy bills.

Since the pandemic forced us all to look at how we work, there have been huge advances made in remote working. Part of the reason I launched my business 12 years ago was that at the time flexible working to a lot of employers was just work from home on a Friday. Despite the cost and time required to commute, those two hours were deemed better spent in a car or train than at a home working desk.

This cultural change towards a more accepting approach to remote working will, I believe, undoubtedly benefit women more. Statistically women are more likely to have the responsibilities of care giving, whether that is to young children or aged parents. Sometimes a commute and the school run simply are not compatible. But remote working also enables those with mobility issues, or those who are in areas where employment opportunities may be limited, to access the workforce. Not to mention the obvious benefits of cutting out unnecessary commutes when we are trying to achieve net zero and tackle climate change.

But what does this mean for employees who must now use energy to heat their home and run their devices?

HMRC allows employers to offer their staff who work remotely some tax-free benefits. As it currently stands an employer can give an employee £6 per week or £26 per month to cover the cost of energy use from home. If you are employed and work remotely regularly it is worth speaking to your employer about accessing this if it isn’t already offered.

This rate has been in place since 2021 and is due a revision to keep up with inflation and help workers face the cost-of-living challenge. Since that rate was introduced, according to the House of Commons Library, the energy price cap increased by 12% in October 2021 and 54% in April 2022. The April increase was equivalent to £700 more across a year for direct debit customers with 'typical' levels of dual fuel consumption.

As employers are told to hold off from large increases in salary to avoid fuelling inflation, the only logical thing to do is to allow employers to provide their staff with a more realistic tax-free payment to help them meet the costs of working from home. Is this something that the Chancellor or HMRC will champion? I do hope so.