British industry warns of factory closures without help on fuel costs

Britain's most energy intensive manufacturers, including producers of steel, glass, ceramics and paper, have warned the government that unless something is done about soaring wholesale gas prices they could be forced to shut down production.

Wholesale gas prices have increased 400 per cent this year in Europe, partly due to low stocks and strong demand from Asia, putting particular pressure on energy intensive industries.

Industry bosses held talks on Friday with business minister Kwasi Kwarteng but said these ended with no immediate solutions. "If the government doesn't take any action then basically what we'll see for the steel sector is more and more pauses of production in certain times of the day and those pauses will become longer," Gareth Stace, director general of UK Steel told ITV News.