British Gas raises prices by 22%

On Friday, Mr Hain visited tissue firm Kimberly-Clark in Flint and later met union officials and business leaders.

He said "enough is enough" after hearing how energy costs have risen by 60% in the last four months.

One local tile company has laid off staff because of rising gas prices.

Dennis Ruabon, based in Wrexham, took the temporary measures because the cost of heating its kilns had trebled.

There are fears others may be forced to follow suit unless energy costs - currently the highest in Europe - can be cut.

Mr Hain's visit came on the day that British Gas - part of the Centrica group - announced that domestic customers were facing a 22% rise in bills from March, blaming an increase in wholesale prices.

People cannot cope any more with these high energy prices Welsh Secretary Peter Hain

Mr Hain said: "I'll be carrying back to the cabinet table and the prime minister loud and clear an SOS message from businesses here in north Wales that enough is enough.

"People cannot cope any more with these high energy prices"

The minister, who was joined by Delyn MP David Hanson and AM Sandy Mewies during the visit on Friday, added: "We've got to do something about this because of the strides that have been made in north Wales economically, the prosperity, growth and jobs could be put at risk by these rising energy costs."

Kimberly-Clark, who make products including Andrex and Kleenex tissues, employ 260 people in Flint.

Site manager Paul Williams said rising energy costs were a major disadvantage to British manufacturers competing against foreign companies.

"The very nature of our business requires us to be a major user of electricity and gas and we make constant efforts to be as energy efficient as possible.

"Despite this, our energy costs have still doubled in the past two years and have risen 60% in the last four months alone, directly increasing manufacturing costs in one of our mills by 7.1%."

Union concern

Manufacturers including Airbus, Shotton Paper and Anglesey Aluminium have also voiced concerns over the UK's energy price fluctuation.

Andy Richards, regional organiser of the T&G union, which organised the meeting, said: "It's fast becoming a crisis and we're hopeful there will be some direct government action on this.

We're presented a united front at this meeting and let's hope some action and support will promptly be taken."

"We're calling for a balanced energy policy which includes all the options - clean coal, renewables and, of course, safe nuclear."