Small businesses working in IT across the UK are not saving as much energy as they could due to the conditions they have in their corporate structures, it has been stated.

Sumir Karayi, chief executive officer of 1E, stated that it is contrary to popular belief which is building in the UK, where people are constantly reminded to switch off their electricity outlets when they are not using them.

He said: "IT departments are not incentivised to reduce energy spend because they don't actually share in the cost savings and are not in charge of energy budgets."

The expert's comments follow the third annual PC Energy report, which studies the habits and attitudes exampled in Germany, the UK and the US.

It found that small IT businesses in the UK are wasting £300 million a year through the powering of idle computers during a night, although workers are more likely to do good things for the environment than their American counterparts.

In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were guaranteed response times and allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues.