Four out of 10 small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) have never been offered any help or advice on how to reduce their energy bills, new research claims.

Nearly a fifth of the 100 SMEs quizzed also don’t know what Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is and have “no time” to act on cutting their carbon emissions.

According to the survey, almost half of the firms also said they don’t have “readily available” funds to pay for their energy bills and despite nearly three quarters saying they are familiar with “bill shock” during the energy-heavy autumn/winter months, half are putting off examining their energy use.

David Hilton, MD of Vickers Energy Group, which carried out the survey said: “UK industry really isn’t geared up for the forthcoming autumn/winter months with 40% saying that they don’t make any preparations to make sure that funds are available to pay their bills.

“It’s frightening that UK plc seems to be so ill prepared and that businesses feel there is little or no help out there to bring their bills down.”