Remember how we were all going to start shopping locally and increase our support for small businesses due to the effects of lock-downs and working-from-home? We were all set for a new era of enhanced community wellbeing. By helping local farmers and producers, we were supposed to reduce transportation, use less packaging and reduce waste.

A quick look at the profit earnings for online retailers and supermarkets (and the boarded-up small premises on our high streets) shows that it has not quite worked out that way, though, has it? And there’s little to no chance of that changing any time soon, either.

Small traders are facing the biggest crisis of a generation this winter, as energy prices spiral across Europe. Unlike large corporates, small firms cannot hedge costs and negotiate deals with their large energy suppliers. According to the UK’s Federation of Small Businesses, many of its members are of the mindset that “eye-watering” energy bills could be the “f