The Energy Bills Aren't Going Down. So What Are You Going to Do About It?

Let's be honest. If you're running a care home, managing a hotel, or operating a B2B business with any kind of logistics or supply chain attached to it, your energy costs have been keeping you up at night for a while now.

And if they haven't — they probably should be.

We're not saying that to alarm you. We're saying it because the businesses we work with who are sleeping best at night aren't the ones who got lucky with a cheap tariff. They're the ones who stopped waiting for energy prices to fall and started taking control of their own situation. There's a difference between those two approaches, and in 2026, that difference is worth a lot of money.

This month we want to talk about three things that are genuinely moving the needle for SMEs right now: generating your own energy on-site, getting ahead of incoming sustainability reporting rules, and making the most of government grants that won't be around forever. None of it is as complicated as it sounds. All of it matters more than most businesses realise.

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The bill you can't negotiate away!

Here's something that most energy brokers won't lead with: a growing chunk of your electricity bill has nothing to do with the price of energy on the wholesale market. By the end of 2026, non-commodity charges — network fees, transmission costs, infrastructure levies — are expected to make up nearly 60% of a typical business electricity bill. That's money you're paying regardless of how clever your procurement strategy is. You can switch suppliers all you like; those charges follow you everywhere.

For a care home running 24 hours a day, or a hotel with kitchens, laundry, heating and hundreds of rooms pulling electricity around the clock, this isn't a footnote. It's a structural problem that compounds every year.

The businesses that have figured this out are solving it the same way: by generating their own power on-site and using it before it ever touches the grid. It's not a niche strategy anymore. In 2026, more than 1 gigawatt of new behind-the-meter solar and storage is being installed across the UK — businesses of all sizes deciding that the best energy deal is the one where you make the power yourself.

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Is solar actually worth it for your type of business?

We get asked this a lot, and the honest answer is: it depends on your building, your roof, and your consumption profile. But for care homes and hospitality businesses specifically, the case is often stronger than people expect.

Here's why. Solar is at its most effective when you have consistent, high daytime electricity consumption. Care homes tick that box completely — heating, cooking, lighting, medical equipment, staff facilities, all running through the day. Hotels aren't far behind, especially when you factor in kitchens prepping from early morning, housekeeping through the day, and facilities that never really stop.

Commercial electricity currently costs between 22p and 30p per kWh for most SMEs. On-site solar, once installed, can bring the cost of your self-generated power down to around 5–8p per kWh. The gap between those two numbers is where your return on investment lives — and for a building with a good roof and meaningful daytime demand, payback periods of three to four years are realistic on systems that last 25 years or more.

Right now, 0% VAT applies to commercial solar installations, which takes a meaningful chunk off the upfront cost. That relief is in place until 2027, but we'd expect demand to keep rising, and with grid connection queues already growing as the UK pushes toward its target of 45–47 GW of solar capacity by 2030, the businesses moving now are the ones securing better terms and faster installations.

Pairing a solar system with battery storage makes the economics even sharper — you store surplus generation during the day and draw on it during your evening peak, which for a hotel or care home is exactly when you need it most.

At CNZ, we don't start with panels. We start with your bills, your building, and your consumption data. If the numbers stack up — and they often do — we'll tell you exactly what the investment looks like and manage everything from initial survey to final commissioning. If they don't, we'll tell you that too.

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The compliance conversation you need to have before your clients have it for you!

In February 2026, the UK government published something that most SME owners haven't heard of yet, but almost certainly will within the next twelve months. The UK Sustainability Reporting Standards — UK SRS — represent a significant shift in how businesses are expected to disclose their environmental impact.

Here's the quick version. From January 2027, large listed companies are legally required to report on their climate-related risks and emissions under these standards. That includes their full supply chain — meaning Scope 3 emissions — which is the technical way of saying: the carbon impact of every supplier and partner they work with.

That's where you come in.

If you supply goods or services to a large retailer, a healthcare group, a hotel chain, or any other sizeable organisation, they will need sustainability data from you to complete their own reporting. Not eventually. Imminently! Research published earlier this year found that 73% of UK SMEs are already receiving increased sustainability data requests from their larger clients — and the formal deadline hasn't even arrived yet.

We've spoken to business owners who've been caught off guard by this. A hospitality supplier who suddenly found a major client's procurement questionnaire asking for carbon figures they didn't have. A B2B services business that lost a tender renewal partly because they couldn't demonstrate any sustainability reporting. These aren't horror stories from the future — they're happening right now, in 2026.

The good news is that you don't need to overhaul your entire business to get ready for this. Most SMEs already hold the data they need — it's sitting in energy bills, fuel receipts, waste records and fleet mileage logs. The challenge is pulling it together into a coherent, credible format that satisfies what your clients are going to ask for.

What you don't want to do is leave it until a contract renewal lands on your desk with a new sustainability section you've never seen before.

CNZ helps businesses in the care, hospitality and B2B sectors build a carbon baseline, structure their reporting data, and develop a practical reduction roadmap. We translate the regulation into plain actions — no acronyms, no unnecessary complexity, just a clear picture of where you are and what a sensible next step looks like. Getting ahead of this now isn't just about compliance. It's about staying commercially competitive when your bigger clients start making choices based on who can and can't provide this information.

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The grant deadline that's closer than you think!

If your business runs vehicles of any kind — care home transport, staff minibuses, delivery vans, company cars, or anything in between — there's money available right now that many SMEs simply don't know about. And some of it has a 30 June 2026 deadline.

The Depot Charging Scheme, launched in March 2026, will fund 70% of chargepoint and civil installation costs at your depot or site — up to £1 million across all your locations. The first application window closes on 30 June and is assessed on a first-come, first-served basis. For businesses with multiple sites or a meaningful number of vehicles, this is a significant contribution toward infrastructure that you're going to need anyway.

For those operating heavier vehicles, the Zero Emission Truck Grant currently offers up to £81,000 off a single electric HGV, covering up to 40% of the purchase cost. That's part of a wider £318 million government investment in green freight — one of the largest commitments to commercial vehicle electrification the UK has made, designed partly in response to the ZEV mandate which requires 24% of all new vans sold by end of 2026 to be zero emission, rising to 70% by 2030.

For most SMEs, though, the most immediately relevant and accessible scheme is the Workplace Charging Scheme. From April 2026, the grant increased to £500 per socket — up to 40 sockets per business — covering installations for staff vehicles and fleet charging. That's potentially £20,000 toward getting your site EV-ready, available until March 2027. It's not glamorous, but for a care home adding charging for staff cars and a minibus, or a hotel group preparing for guests arriving in electric vehicles, it adds up quickly.

The running cost argument for going electric is already compelling. Electric vehicles have fewer moving parts, cheaper servicing and no exposure to diesel/petrol price volatility. The barrier has always been the upfront cost — and that's exactly what these schemes exist to reduce. If you combine on-site solar with EV charging infrastructure, you can run part of your fleet on power you've generated yourself, which brings the cost per mile down further still.

The caveat we'd always add: grant rates reduce over time as the technology becomes more mainstream. The Depot Charging programme runs until 2030, but earlier applicants secure better rates. If you're planning to electrify anyway, there's a genuine financial argument for doing it sooner rather than later.

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Why this all connects

Solar, sustainability reporting and EV fleet electrification might look like three separate topics. But for the businesses we work with, they're really one conversation: how do you take control of your energy costs, reduce your carbon footprint, and protect your commercial position — all at the same time?

A care home group that installs solar reduces its grid dependency and its energy costs. When it also builds a carbon reporting framework, it becomes a more attractive partner for NHS commissioning bodies and local authorities that are increasingly making procurement decisions on sustainability grounds. When it electrifies its transport fleet using available grants, it locks in lower running costs and demonstrates the kind of environmental commitment that matters to both regulators and residents' families.

The same logic applies in hospitality. An independent hotel group that generates its own power, reports its emissions clearly, and charges its fleet on-site is not just saving money. It's building a more resilient, more competitive business — one that's less exposed to energy market shocks, better positioned for client and investor scrutiny, and more ready for the regulatory environment that's clearly coming.

In B2B, where supply chain relationships are increasingly shaped by sustainability credentials, being ahead of the curve isn't a nice-to-have. It's becoming a condition of staying in the room.

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Where CNZ fits in

We work with medium and large SMEs across the care, hospitality and B2B sectors — businesses that are serious about energy, serious about sustainability, and serious about making smart commercial decisions. We're not here to sell you a product. We're here to help you figure out what's right for your business, access the funding that's available, and implement changes that actually make a difference to your bottom line.

Whether that's a solar feasibility assessment, help getting your carbon data in order before a client asks for it, or navigating the grant landscape for your fleet — we do it practically, in plain English, with your specific circumstances front and centre.

If any of the above resonates with where your business is right now, we'd genuinely love to talk. Not a sales call. Just a conversation about what's actually possible for your sector, your sites and your situation.

Get in touch with Jon & Laura, the CNZ team at 01524 259 200— or visit the ClearlyNetZero.com website to find out more.

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CNZ works with SMEs across the UK care, hospitality and B2B sectors on energy management, carbon reduction and sustainability compliance. All grant figures and regulatory details are correct as of May 2026 and subject to government updates.*