Personally, I can easily absorb the price rise in fuel. I would still be fine at £2 per litre. I don't price or work that close to the bone.
That's from a business point of view. However, the tax on fuel is now just ridiculous in this country, in fact the amount of tax on everything is too high. We've been bled dry by greedy fat cats & allowed our country to become so over-populated with foreign immigrants to the point of breaking it's back. :
I deliberately make no comment on your views about the causes of the fuel price issue as it would probably sidetrack this thread.
Regarding the fuel prices and the ability to absorb it though.
Yes, I could probably absorb a £2 litre too if all other things remained equal. It would represent an extra cost to me of about £80 - £100 a month and I could live with that - albeit on a tighter budget. However, the main problem is that other things wouldn't remain equal. Many customers would undoubtedly feel the pinch and start cancelling or reducing services still further. Other inflation would increase by quite a margin making basic products more expensive. You don't have a window cleaner when struggling to buy the basics. The usual blunt instrument against inflation is to shunt up interest rates making your mortgage (if you have one) and the customers' mortgages more expensive - possibly a lot more. A 1% hike in rates would equate to about £70 a month on many mortgages - though obviously this varies a lot depending how much has been borrowed. The problems would go a lot further IMO than just having a higher diesel bill. New work would undoubtedly be harder to come by. The total window cleaning pot in the UK would decrease - and there would be more window cleaners chasing that pot as unemployment increased.
None of this is rocket science of course. There are always knock on effects with economics - both on the way up and on the way down.
This is one reason why I am sceptical about politicians bleating regarding reducing the public sector for the private sector to take over. Many parts of the private sector actually depend upon the public sector supplying reasonably paid jobs with reasonable security. It might just work if the savings in the public sector were used to boost startups in the private sector. That won't happen though as the savings are going towards paying pre-existing debts. The only way it might happen is by printing yet more money (QE) - i.e. more inflation.
The reality is that we are seeing the first part of a global power shift IMO and that we will all need to start getting used to that.
I didn't intend to drift so far off course with this thread but I've done it now
