Pensioners and the low-paid won’t survive winter if bills rob them of half their income

SIR – There are nearly 12 million pensioners in the United Kingdom (roughly 20 per cent of the population).

The new full state pension is £185.15 a week, just over £9,500 a year, but many millions on the previous scheme are of the old-school resilient breed, managing to cope on even less than that, while mystifyingly people earning in excess of £30,000 a year claim they need food banks to survive.

If they are struggling, pensioners like me and millions of low-paid workers will not survive the winter should domestic energy bills jump to a third and possibly half of our income.

The presently rudderless Government needs to take urgent action now, otherwise the new prime minister is likely to face civil unrest, previously unseen in the normally docile British electorate.

Patrick Tracey Carlisle, Cumbria

SIR – What is the point of an energy price cap if it keeps being increased? Nigel Dickinson

High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire

SIR – The dramatic increase in the cost of electricity will inevitably hit the poorest homes hardest. Unfortunately, Ofgem has made it harder for these households to control their bills by allowing the power companies greatly to increase the standing charge.

The obvious effect is that the householder is already faced with a large bill before he turns the lights on for the first time, and so has little incentive to modify his usage.

The reverse situation – a low standing charge and a slightly higher unit charge – would encourage lower consumption.

Peter Munro Stoke Trister, Somerset

SIR – What on earth is the Government doing about fracking? It should have started by now. What is it waiting for? Gwenllian Bowden

Bodenham, Herefordshire

SIR – We read that consideration has been given to banning new residential developments in west London because the electricity grid is no longer capable of supplying more power (report, July 29).

If this is indeed the case, then how on earth are they going to cope with the requirement for residential heating to be powered by heat pumps, which use vast amounts of electricity ?

Charles Pugh London SW10

SIR – Vladimir Putin is toying with the West and its gas supplies (“Russia cuts gas to carry out ‘maintenance’”, report, July 26). There seems little doubt that he will eventually turn it off, especially if the current situation does not change in his favour in Ukraine.

We need to grasp the nettle now. As Angela Merkel has said, the only thing Mr Putin understands is military force. We should send in Nato to drive the Russians out of Ukraine. If by doing so Mr Putin is encouraged to turn off the gas, then better now than in winter.

It will also deliver a message to China about the folly of invading other countries .

Dr Klaus Misch Epsom, Surrey