Business gas renewal, translated

If you ignore a business gas renewal letter, your supplier moves you onto out-of-contract rates. Published out-of-contract gas rates run from 5.4p to 13.7p per kWh as of July 2026, and typically sit 30% to 70% above a contracted rate. You can leave them with 28 days' notice. Avoiding them altogether takes about ten minutes.

Your renewal letter is designed to be filed, not read. The supplier's best outcome is that you put it somewhere safe, forget it, and roll onto rates they chose. That's the loyalty tax, and this page is how you cancel it.

The letter, decoded

Every renewal letter contains three numbers that matter. Find them before you read anything else.

Your contract end date: everything runs off this. Suppliers must write to you 60 to 90 days before it. If the letter has arrived, your window to act is already open.

The renewal rate: the new unit price they'd like you to accept. Compare it to your current rate, printed on your last bill. A rise with no explanation is normal. That doesn't make it fair.

The default rate: usually in smaller print, this is what you'll pay if you do nothing. It's the number the letter hopes you won't find.

Bring us the letter and we'll mark all three in two minutes. No obligation follows from that.

What doing nothing costs

Out-of-contract gas rates published by UK suppliers for 2025/26 range from 5.43p per kWh (British Gas) to 13.70p (Yü Energy). The average across published schedules is 9.22p. You don't choose which end of that range you land on. Your supplier does.

Standing charges are where it stings twice: out-of-contract standing charges run two to four times the level of a contracted deal. SmartestEnergy's published out-of-contract standing charge is £9.34 a day. That's £3,409 a year before you burn any gas.

A worked example. Say your expiring contract charges 7p per kWh and your shop uses 25,000 kWh a year. Drift onto the average out-of-contract rate of 9.22p and the gap is £555 a year on units alone, before the standing charge multiplies. Do nothing for two years and you've paid for a decent holiday. Someone else's.

Your three options

Accept the renewal. Sometimes the offer is decent. If your supplier's renewal rate beats what we can find on the open market, we'll tell you to stay put. We'd rather lose a switch than your trust, and honestly, staying is the right call more often than this industry admits. Before you sign, check three things beyond the unit rate: the contract length, the standing charge, and any pass-through or additional charges listed in the small print.

Switch. If the market beats the letter, switching takes one form and about ten minutes of your time. Your gas never goes off. The new supplier handles the handover.

Negotiate. Renewal rates are opening offers, not final ones. A competing quote in hand changes the conversation with your current supplier. We'll get you that quote either way.

The dates that matter

Two different windows get confused, and the confusion costs money. Your renewal window is when you can agree a new deal: most suppliers will quote up to 12 months before your end date, so a good market week eight months out is bookable now. Your notice period is when you must tell them you're leaving: some contracts want a termination notice in writing before the end date, even if you're going. Miss it and some suppliers treat silence as consent.

If you do nothing else, start 90 days before your end date. That's when renewal letters land and decisions stop being rushed.

If you're already out of contract, you're not stuck. Out-of-contract rates can be left with 28 days' notice and no exit fee. The worst month is the one you're in now.