Led by Jonathan Shaw MP, chairman of the Paper Industry All-Party Parliamentary Group, the delegation stressed that the year-on-year increases in gas prices are costing the UK paper industry an additional 50m a year, and threatening additional job losses.
The meeting was organised by the Paper Federation and it says that technical specialists in the energy market have been unable to explain the magnitude of increases in gas prices and how, if at all, pipeline costs from Zeebrugge to the UK are affecting the situation.
The delegation was encouraged by the fact that the Minister had cancelled a planned visit to the US in order to attend today’s meeting during his first week in office. Alan McKendrick, president of the Paper Federation – who is also chief executive of Aylesford Newsprint – said : “An urgent resolution to this very serious situation is needed. We are now more hopeful that there will be a full investigation in the near future, and that action will be forthcoming sooner rather than later.”
Mr McKendrick said also that: “We took heart from the fact that the minister was clearly very concerned about the situation and his acknowledgement that there is room for valuable improvements in transparency in the operation of the gas interconnector [the Zeebrugge pipeline].”
The minister told the delegation that on appointing him to his new post, the Prime Minister had placed gas prices at the top of the energy agenda. Mr Hain is also said to have affirmed that he is a strong believer in manufacturing industry and that the government is not impervious to the current concerns.
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