Wednesday 2 September 2009

A vision of Britain in 2020: power cuts and the 3-day week

Britain's homes could be without light and heat for long periods by 2020 with the government being forced to repeat the 1974 imposition of power cuts by rota, a doom-laden report by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) says today.

By then, 80% of the gas to fuel Britain's power stations and domestic central heating will be piped "from politically unstable countries thousands of miles away." Mechanical failure, sabotage and terrorist attack would lead to power cuts within days, the report says. The society, established in 1818, says Britain will be at the end of a pipeline which passes through several other countries relying on imported gas.

A vision of Britain in 2020: power cuts and the 3-day week | Politics | The Guardian