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Small to medium-sized businesses are cutting company travel and advertising budgets but keeping tea, coffee and biscuits for staff as firms reassess their spending.

A YouGov survey, commissioned by Opus Energy, found travel and advertising are top of the budget cut list, followed by staff bonuses and entertainment.

This was backed up by research from Whitbread Hotels and Restaurants, which says companies will be moving 80 per cent of their hotel spending to budget accommodation.

Opus' research also found a third of companies employing up to 50 people planned to cut back on bonuses, with larger firms being more likely to do so.

However, 16 per cent of managers said they would not axe their staff's daily cup of tea or biscuit as doing so would lead to a drop in employee morale.

Andy Nash, operations director at Opus Energy, says more firms should look away from these areas and focus on reassessing their energy costs to reduce this spend.

'While some value can be had from trimming excess spending on business travel and advertising budgets, it is surprising that a review of utility bills does not appear higher up the list,' he adds.

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