[so much for the war in Iraq was for Oil-ed]

BUSINESSES could be forced to close down and lay off workers this winter because the country’s energy reserves are so low, the director-general of the CBI warned yesterday.

“If we have a cold winter, we are going to throw the switch, businesses will shut down, people will lose their jobs,” Sir Digby Jones said.

“If we don’t sort out our decrepit supply system, we are, this winter, going to run out of fuel.”

According to the CBI, Britain has only 11 days’ gas held in reserve to power industrial users during a hard winter. In comparison, other European countries keep an average of 55 days in reserve.

His warning came as the Met Office yesterday issued an “amber alert” to contingency planners in the government - including the NHS and Highways Agency - and in the energy industry to prepare for a “colder than average winter”.

The UK energy minister Malcolm Wickes admitted the truth in Sir Digby’s words at a fringe meeting of the Labour conference in Brighton attended by both men. Mr Wickes conceded that industry could be badly hit by an unusually cold winter.

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