Will a price cap help cut heating bills?

THE regulator Ofgem claims an energy price cap will save the average household £75 a year (Mail). Following a general increase in its standard tariff in April, my supplier SSE slipped in another increase in July of — guess what? — £79 a year, based on average usage of 5,000 kWh. It seems as if it has got its retaliation in first in relation to the proposed price cap. Ofgem says it can’t do anything about prices, so who can? Will the Government be the consumers’ champion? GEORGE COPELaND, Wokingham, Berks. a CaP on energy prices will only benefit the middle classes and the rich, who can afford to have their heating on all day. None of Theresa May’s JaMs — the just about managing — will get any benefit because they can only afford to put the heating on for the absolute minimum and will never reach the price cap. TERRY BROWN, Brighton. WHAT is the point of having a smart meter fitted on the highly questionable pretext of helping householders save money by reducing their energy bills and then for the power supplying cartels to increase the unit costs? Surely this will more than wipe out any potential household savings.

MIKE WALKER, Highley, Shropshire. THE real question is what the energy sector is going to do to arrest the long-term increase in fuel costs and drive up the service it delivers. all too often, energy companies announce these feel-good measures, while quietly brushing under the carpet another set of ‘efficiencies’, which simply means cuts. The energy sector needs to ask itself how it is going to provide a service focused on consumers and fit for the future at a cost both reasonable and free from inefficiency.

CHRIS PROCTOR, Oneserve, London W1.