Energy Intensive Users Group call for power industry overhaul

Britain's biggest energy users have called for a radical overhaul of the system for regulating the privatised gas and electricity industries. The Energy Intensive Users Group, which represents big industrial consumers like cement, glass, steel, paper and chemical firms, told MPs that a Commons select committee should be set up to monitor the regulators. It also said customers should have an appeals mechanism to a competition commission.

Separately, ICI told the Commons Trade and Industry select committee that Professor Stephen Littlechild at Offer and Clare Spottiswoode at Ofgas should be replaced by three-strong panels of regulators reporting to a "regulatory overlord" to produce more balanced decision-making and greater consistency.