A chip shop has announced it has been forced to increase prices after its energy and food costs have spiked.

Bankers, which has three fish and chip shops across Brighton and Hove, said that inflation, caused by Brexit, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, had caused costs to rise significantly.

James Lipscombe, managing director and owner of The Chesterford Group - which operates Bankers, said that the company “had no choice but to increase our prices, due to the unprecedented economic environment we have found ourselves in”.

He said: “This is one of the most challenging times in my 22-year career that I have known.

“We are obsessive about the quality of our products, their sustainable and ethical credentials and worked hard to build relationships with the people we trust, from the captains and crews of the fishing vessels that we visit four times a year in Iceland, to the potato farmers we have worked 

“It would be easier for us to compromise on quality and sell cheaper inferior products, but we just don’t want to do that and feel it is the wrong way to go.

“To enable us to continue to employ our hard-working teams, balance our books and meet our tax obligations, we have had no choice but to increase our prices with immediate effect.

“I sincerely wish that this wasn’t the case, but the reality is that without these increases, we could not afford to operate as a business in this current economic climate.”

James explained that, over the last 11 months, food costs for the company have jumped by 45 per cent, with the cost of cooking oil rising by 75 per cent and the cost of cod and haddock up by 55 per cent.

James also explained that, even with help from the government, the company’s energy costs have doubled, and that a tariff on Russian white fish imports had caused a surge in demand for fish from other sources - causing prices to rocket further.

The company will mark 100 years since the family-owned business opened their first fish and chip shop in Romford in Essex next year.