Progress on completing a new regulatory deal for Manx Gas has been delayed again - with climate change getting the blame.

But Policy and Reform Minister Chris Thomas has said he would expect any price reductions to be back-dated and reimbursed.

Completion of the deal has been delayed a number of times.

Just last October Mr Thomas said negotiations were due to be completed by November 30 and he expected it to be published before the end of the year.

But in the House of Keys on Tuesday, he was unable to give a date for when the deal would be complete, but said he hoped negotiations would be concluded within weeks rather than months.

Last week, Tynwald approved the 10 commitments from the Manx Government as part of a broad pledge to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. One of those commitments is to have 75% renewable energy by 2035.

’With an eye to the future, the (gas regulatory review) committee recommended that the new gas pricing and regulatory arrangements should include the evolving policy response to decarbonisation that should be integrated into any new regulatory approach,’ Mr Thomas said.

’There are outcomes and actions in the climate change action plan, which will affect Manx Gas. These need to be reflected in the new regulatory agreement.’

Another of the regulatory committee’s recommendations was a flat rate standing charge for customers - something Manx Gas introduced on January 1.

Commercial negotiations were continuing on achieving ’significantly lower’ rate of return for Manx Gas in any future agreement, but had taken longer, partly due to the climate change situation, Mr Thomas said.

The government ’expects’ any savings for customers to be backdated to January 1. The government also wants a ’revised reimbursement mechanism’ to repay customers ’sooner and more fairly’.

An agreement in principle to repay within 12 months was reached.

He added: ’Reflection of the climate change action plan is a major issue requiring resolution in the new agreement, but negotiations are continuing with Manx Gas.’

But his argument that, when the negotiations first began, there could have been no expectation on either side that the ’decarbonisation agenda would move as quickly as it has done’, received short shrift.

Lawrie Hooper (LibVannin, Ramsey) said he was ’taken aback’ that the climate change emergency could have taken anyone by surprise.

’The report was published in February, the climate emergency was then declared in May and so, for the length of these negotiations, that has been a massive factor,’ he said.

Under a charging regime introduced by Manx Gas in January 2016, the old 16p a day standing charge was replaced with a banded system ranging from 50p a day to 213p a day (now 51.2p to 218.2p) - while at the same time charges per unit used were reduced.

That was so unpopular protesters held demonstrations outside the company’s headquarters in South Quay, Douglas, saying they were left with much bigger bills.

In February last year, Manx Gas announced customers would be allowed an opt out from the banding system and then, in September, it revealed plans to scrap the banding system entirely and return to the 16p a day standing charge.