91Èȱ¬

Some non-league football clubs and swimming pools could be forced to close because of rising energy prices.

The Better social enterprise group, which operates 260 sports venues, said its utility bills have gone up from £27m to £87m a year.

While Lye Town Football Club called for more government support to help clubs survive.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is expected to deliver the government's budget on 17 November.

Better, which runs the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Leisure Centre in Rugby, Warwickshire, said it has already had to lower the water temperature in its pools in a bid to cut costs.

But it said it wants to avoid putting its prices up for users also feeling the economic pinch.

"This is a modern facility, with efficient plant, it has got biomass boilers so it has got alternative heating and this has gone from being a break-even small surplus to being a £300,000 loss this year," said CEO Peter Bundey

"And there are numerous pools at the tipping point saying this is uneconomic.

"Across the sector there is two million school children and young children learning to swim every week, that is essential life skills that we just can't see pools closing."

At Lye Town, based in Stourbridge, their fixed price energy bills recently ended and monthly costs without any financial aid have gone up from £600 per month to £5,800.

"To bridge that sort of gap, which could be £50,000 a year is just not feasible," Chairman Brian Blakemore said.

"If this current situation drags on for any length of time I think it is inevitable that clubs will just not be able to afford it."

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