last updated: Wednesday 2 September 2009, 15:54pm

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UK faces 1970s-style blackouts

Britain is facing widespread power cuts for the first time since the 1970s, according to the Government's own predictions.

Demand for electricity from homes and businesses is set to exceed the available supply within eight years.

The Tories have accused ministers of putting their 'heads in the sand' and risking leaving millions of people without reliable energy.

Power rationing has not taken place in Britain since the 1970s, when a three-day week was brought in to preserve coal during a miners' strike.

The Government has set out a target for 'clean' technology - such as wind, wave and solar - to supply 40 per cent of the country's power by 2020, but there's a suggestion that there will be a shortfall by 2017, when the 'energy unserved' level is predicted to reach 3,000 megawatt hours per year.

That would be equivalent to the whole of the Nottingham area being without electricity for a day.

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