Director of business affairs Graham Barnard said the CPI was collecting views from members and had asked to meet with Energy minister Stephen Timms.

He said there was no justification for the rise in UK gas prices from 15p to 34p a therm between September and October. In addition, the governments policy of relying on price rises in electricity to stimulate interest in Combined Heat and Power (CHP) was hitting the industry twice as hard.

The proposal to encourage the use of windpower was also unstable, he said.

Under the Competition Act, firms can be fined up to 10% of UK turnover for abusing dominant positions.