A new agreement needs to be in place before the current deal is terminated - or the gas sector would become unregulated.

That’s the warning from the Office of Fair Trading.

In a written response to another House of Keys question, chairman Martyn Mr Perkins revealed advice given to the Council of Ministers by the OFT: ’It is important to stress that, if government gives notice of termination and fails to reach a new agreement prior to termination, the result is that the gas sector becomes unregulated.’

The OFT calls for a termination date for the current arrangement to be set at December 31 to make the change ’manageable’.

’The current agreement manages profits aligned to the Manx Gas accounting year and a part-year would be unfathomable,’ the OFT states.

’An alternative approach would be to use the change mechanism within the existing regulatory agreement to achieve the same outcome.’