Mr George Osborne has acted to late to save Britain's energy intensive aluminum smelters from extinction.

Mr George Osborne was robust in his defense of measures to provide tax relief for energy intensive industries. He told MPs in his Autumn Statement that “We are not going to save the planet by shutting down our steel mills, aluminum smelters and paper manufacturers. Chancellor, the smelters have already disappeared. Well, almost. At one stage, Britain had three smelters producing more than 300,000 tonnes a year of material that seems permanently tagged as the metal of tomorrow.”

The first at Invergordon closed 30 years ago after an unsuccessful struggle by what was then British Aluminum to demonstrate the Highlands was capable of supporting big business as well as smaller hydro powered smelters. The second, at Anglesey, originally operated by RTZ and Kaiser closed 2 years ago after failing to re negotiate a cheap power contract. An announcement about the closure of the third, at Lynemouth, Northumbria came a month before the Chancellor delivered his Autumn Statement.

(Sourced from www.telegraph.co.uk)