UK industry’s heavy energy users fear enforced winter shutdowns

Matt Brown and his father, Bill, at Subcon Laser Cutting in Nuneaton, where the monthly energy bill is expected to rise from £15,000 to £50,000. Photograph: Sonja Horsman/The Observer

At Dreadnought Tiles’ factory just outside Birmingham, specialist staff monitor its nine kilns 24 hours a day. The furnaces reach temperatures of 1,130C and are capable of churning out 40,000 roof tiles a day. Now Alex Patrick-Smith, the 217-year-old company’s managing director, faces the prospect of being forced to switch this nonstop operation off.

Dreadnought belongs to a select group of the UK’s heaviest power users, manufacturers that employ about 210,000 people and contribute £29bn to the economy.