What are you doing about energy bills and lodgers?

[Stopsnowing]

I don’t think I can afford the energy increases but neither can my lodger. If I was living alone I would just turn off the heating.

are you passing a proportion of the increase along?

I would split the increase

This has been in the news for ages - why haven't you talked about it before now? If you split bills they need to pay their half, if it's included you should have had a conversation to increase it

Your lodger may feel the same re switching the heating off. Perhaps the conversation could be along the lines of the options, ie we could agree to have the heating off between X and Y times, or we can split the extra cost. It isn't your fault that the costs have increased and you shouldn't be expected to shoulder the full burden of it. Does your lodger have a contract? It might be harder to do this now as opposed to the end of the contract term if so, though.

I have said that I will need to increase it if necessary but the extra costs could be almost as much as their rent!