Government should have acknowledged the need to bring in statutory regulation of Manx Gas back in the summer.

That’s the view of former policy and reform minister Chris Thomas who believes government has messed up negotiations over an agreement for voluntary regulation.

He has tabled a series of questions and motions on the issue since June - and had more questions down for this week’s House of Keys sitting.

Mr Thomas’s successor as Minister, Ray Harmer, told Tynwald last month that a new regulatory agreement with Manx Gas Ltd has not been signed.

He warned: ’If we cannot get agreement on the figures and the documentation then the statutory route will be followed.’

For its part, Manx Gas says it is ’frustrated’ at the lack of progress in signing a new agreement, despite Tynwald supporting it in November.

Meanwhile, gas customers have yet to see any sign of the promised tariff cuts and £93 rebate.

rebate

Douglas Central MHK Mr Thomas said: ’Manx Gas and government have let the gas customers down by luring Tynwald members to vote for a proposed voluntary gas agreement with a rebate approaching £100 for 2020, and the same price reduction in 2021.

’This rebate has not been paid as promised, and now the deadline for negotiation of the new 2020 gas agreement has passed.’

He said the Tynwald resolution was quite clear that the agreement had to be in place by December 31, 2020.

Mr Thomas said it was ’disrespectful’ to parliament to now not move to imposed regulation given that this was the fourth deadline missed.

He told the Examiner: ’Frankly it is embarrassing that government firstly did not acknowledge the need to impose regulation last summer, then failed to develop a legal framework for gas regulation by October 2020 as it pledged to Tynwald it would do.’

Barry Murphy, of the IoM Gas Customers working group, said: ’There very clearly was not any mandate agreed at Tynwald court in November 2020 to continue negotiations for another dodgy consumer deal with Manx Gas past December 31.’

He suggested if there’s no mandate for another deal, then the government should pay the promised rebates to all domestic customers.

Mr Thomas agrees. He said: ’Gas customer rebates can be received alongside better regulation if they force government to accept it messed up negotiations.’

His Keys question to the chairman of the Office of Fair Trading, Martyn Perkins, asks whether there is now a dispute with Manx Gas arising from the 2015 gas agreement.

Under the previous regulatory agreement signed by the government in 2015, Manx Gas was controversially guaranteed a 9.99% return.

Under terms of the proposed deal, it would see its profits capped at just below 7% for accounts for domestic customers who would also receive a refund averaging at £93.

Mr Harmer has blamed a dispute over the make up of a new regulatory authority for the delay in signing a new agreement.

He said Manx Gas had only begun submitting requested financial information for review on December 22. ’This has had a significant impact on the ability to reach consensus,’ he told Tynwald.

But Manx Gas said it received the draft contract from the government on December 4 and returned it with comments on the 14th but ’had not received a response in over a month’.