A majority of small to medium-sized companies (SMEs) in Britain don’t consider loss of energy supply to be a major risk to their businesses.

Around 83% of the 500 SMEs surveyed by British Gas Business said so and only 17% believe power loss to be a threat to their business.

The survey was carried out amongst SME owners and senior managers with responsibility for gas and electricity as well as boilers and heating systems at their commercial premises.

One in six managers believe loss of energy is a greater business risk than security issues and staff leaving and a fifth said they have testing procedures to mitigate risk of heating and water loss.

On average, senior managers in small businesses claim their companies have lost two working days due to a loss of electricity or gas in the last five years.

Businesses that employ between 100 to 249 employees add they lost an average of three working days in the last five years. This rises to six days for companies with an annual turnover between £50 million and £100 million.

The survey also found only a fifth of small businesses had testing procedures in place to help reduce the risk of losing heating or hot water.

It adds around 41% of senior managers “neglect to carry out an annual service of their appliances” like boilers, with the proportion rising to 45% in companies with fewer than 10 employees.

Almost three quarters (72%) of firms with fewer than 10 employees have no maintenance plan in place.

James Bennett, Managing Director of Business Services at British Gas Business said: “With winter fast approaching, now is the time for small businesses to make sure they have well maintained heating and hot water systems. Companies with annual servicing or maintenance plans in place are better positioned to focus their time on creating revenues and growth.”

Gab Barbaro, Managing Director at British Gas Business will be speaking at Energy Live 2016. Get your tickets here.

There are limited free tickets available for energy end users and university students.