LONDON (The Guardian) – Britain’s Industry leaders have warned the government that factories across the country could stop production due to rising energy costs.
Andrew Large, director-general at the Confederation of Paper Industries, Gareth Stace, from UK Steel, and other representatives of energy-intensive industries attended a meeting with the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, to discuss the wholesale gas crisis on Friday afternoon.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s PM programme afterwards, Large described the risk of fallout across the supply chain.
“When we talked with the secretary of state this afternoon, it was very, very clear across all of the sectors that there are serious risks of effectively factory stoppages as a result of the costs of gas being too high to bear, and in those circumstances there will be a gradual knock-on effect through supply chains, right the way across manufacturing, consumer retail and other products.”
When asked what this would mean for the paper industry, Large said it would be damaging for profitability.
He added: “Every minute that the machinery isn’t working, every minute that paper isn’t being produced is damage to the profitability of the sector and damage to the future investment potential and opportunities.”
Speaking to Channel 4 News, Stace argued the government had failed to act to alleviate the crisis, unlike other governments in Europe.
He said: “What we’re asking Kwasi Kwarteng today to do on wholesale prices is just to step in, to alleviate that pressure in the short term, just like in say Portugal or Italy. Their governments are already investing many billions of euros, to help their industries and the UK government has yet done nothing.”