HEAVY industries could be forced to cut working hours and, in some cases, risk long-term damage to plant and machinery if Britain suffers a severe winter. The Met Office says that there is a 60 per cent chance of this happening, especially in the South.

Records of a meeting in Downing Street on November 9 — seen by The Times — show that Malcolm Wicks, the Energy Minister, and officials from the Department of Trade and Industry, set out four possible outcomes if a one-in-ten big freeze this winter sends gas prices even higher than now.

Mr Wicks said that factories could face interruptions in their power supply as energy providers took advantage of cheap-rate deals with businesses that allow them to turn off the gas temporarily when supplies run low.

Secondly, factories could switch to oil power if their equipment allowed it.

Thirdly, if the price of gas soared even higher, factories could decide that it would be more economical to cut their hours of production or close down altogether until the price fell.

Fourthly, Mr Wicks admitted that there was a risk that some plants would suffer long-term damage if they closed down temporarily, noting there was a danger of “plant-product degradation”. Some heavy machinery needs to be run all the time to stay in working order.

The meeting was chaired by Geoffrey Norris, Tony Blair’s industry adviser and a member of the Downing Street policy unit.

It was attended by representatives of industry, including Sir Digby Jones, DirectorGeneral of the CBI. Sir Digby was accused of being alarmist when he said that Britain was heading for a three-day week if temperatures plummet.

Disclosure of the meeting came as Tony Blair admitted in the Commons that there would be “difficulties with gas prices” because of the cold winter. Energy suppliers were doing their “level best” to make sure that demand was properly met.

Mr Blair said that there was no problem for homes but that difficulties could arise for “high-level industry users”.

He said: “The only way of dealing with that is to make sure the [gas] industry itself can get as much demand as possible from abroad. We are not the only country with this problem, but it is not a problem that lies within the remit of government itself to resolve.”

Also in the Commons Mr Wicks insisted that the National Grid was “awash” with gas. He told MPs: “So far this winter there have been no gas shortages and supply and demand have remained in balance.”

The National Grid had reported short and long-range storage at 100 per cent and 98 per cent respectively.

Alan Johnson, the Trade and Industry Secretary, told an all-party committee of MPs that the media had caused “unnecessary worry” to elderly and vulnerable people.

The Energy Intensive Users Group, which represents some of the biggest industrial users of gas, has called on the Government to revise its strategy.

In particular, it wants it to get involved in the regulation of the privately owned UKBelgium Interconnector, which supplies Britain with gas from continental Europe’s grid but is running at below capacity, and to increase storage capacity.

Jeremy Nicholson, director of the group, said: “We have been in discussions with them [the Government] for months and months saying that storage is inadequate and it’s having a damaging effect on the market. And they have refused to listen to our concerns.”

Industry experts are baffled by high gas prices. They blame a lack of speculative trading after the collapse of Enron and the dominance of German and French utilities in the UK market for driving prices so high despite normal seasonal weather and demand for gas.

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