Fish and Chips at £11.70: Energy, Fish Tariffs and Labour

Jon Long charges £11.70 for a regular cod and chips at his shop in Wimborne, Dorset. Roughly £2 of that goes straight to the government in VAT. The fish itself costs between £3.50 and £4 – about 35% of the price. Staff wages eat another 40%, or about £4. Packaging, gas and electricity take a slice. What remains is roughly £2. That £2 covers reinvestment, future upgrades and Long's own income. It is not net profit.

The war in Ukraine, pandemic fallout and hospitality energy costs all play into that number. Long said his fish cost has jumped from £7 a kilo to £16-£17. Over 50% of fish coming into the UK had been Russian-caught; that supply has stopped and tariffs have been added. Energy prices have hit every hospitality business, he said. "It's not just hospitality, it's everybody's pockets."

Long's grandfather and father were in the trade. He said he swore he would never join it, "but of course it's in your blood." He reopened a shop in Wareham that had shut in November, partly because his son came into the business. "I wouldn't be investing in that if I didn't believe there was a future," he said. "We've got to manage our costs well."