Yeah, great idea, get the taxpayer to, in effect, subsidise the ultilities. Great idea, after all we all pay so little tax these days, don't we?

Jeremy Poynton, Frome, Somerset

Maybe if the government owned these companies they would have more control.Also,the tax payer would be benefiting from these huge profits.

stephen hulton, eure, france

I think that since the UK Government will not work on additional supplies, and is trying to become green, there is only one solution. All people who cannot afford fuel should assume room temperature, and thereby ' reduce the surplus population '. However since the Government believes in ' Global Warming ', heating should not be problem-should it?.

Desmond Taylor, Houston, USA Tx

Everyone suffers from the high price of utilities. Why should one cross section get subsidies? It's time to nationalise the industry and bring down prices.

Hamad Lone, London, England

It's not that difficult. Just have tiered pricing so that those who are profligate in their energy use pay a premium on the energy they use over a basic amount. Every household could have an energy 'allowance' at a standard rate but usage above this rate would be charged at a premium. That way the basic rate could be a fair price and the admin costs would be negligible.

PR, Cornwall,

Of course there is a simpler and better solution; cut taxes on the poor. Stop the ludicrous and wicked practice of taxing old age pensions. But then Brown might have to slim down his Client State, and that would be unthinkable wouldn't it?

Martin, Welwyn Garden City, England

Everybody needs help with funding for gas and electric prices not just the poor, some of them do not pay for heating if on benefits.
Why should the UK pay higher prices for fuel when those in Europe have had only small rises, we are subsidising Europe. The UkKis always taking the brunt of fuel prices.

f. Simpson, Leics,

Perhaps now is the the time to 'Nationalise' the energy companies to provide a non profit making 'essential service' to consumers with these ongoing severe price increases which not only contribute heavily to inflation but also affect so many consumers cost of living.

Billy Bop, London, UK

So, I will now have to subsidise people's heating, as well as their children, their housing, their policing, their prisons and everything else that these profligate wastrels expect of me as by right, and successive weak governments tell them they should have. Pay decent pensions for the elderly and let the young work, as I have to!

I, like Prince Harry, am sick of this country.

PS. The energy companies need every penny to find new resources or we will all suffer. Ignorant politicians, and an ignorant, and greedy, public will be the ruin of us all, and soon.

Colin Smith, Norwich, UK

Subsidising energy for low-income groups will result in increased energy consumption - the very thing we want to avoid.

Better to subsidise the low-income consumers themselves, by increasing means-tested benefits during periods of high energy prices. This would give consumers the choice of how best to spend the extra cash.
Some will simply continue to buy the extra energy, but others may choose more insulation, or woolly jumpers, a thicker duvet, good Scotch or other hydrocarbon foods, an exercise machine, hot water bottles, or to move to a warmer climate.

Ingenious solutions to the matter of how to maximise the advantage of the energy supplement will abound.
A much less damaging and more creative subsidy.

John Lewis, Isle of Wight, UK

There should be price reductions right across the board if there are going to be cuts. Why should families who are being taxed to the hilt have to pay the full whack of price increases whilst others, who probably pay no taxes at all, reap the profits of others frugality? Another concoction of lies and subterfuge from a morally bankrupt and inept government.

Pete, Lincoln, England

Power giants cash in with huge EU windfall. But they won't be giving any of it to Fuel Poverty Poor Families.
Energy suppliers were attacked last month for scooping a £9bn cash windfall at the same time as unjustifyingly driving fuel bills to record highs.
MPs, consumer groups and poverty action campaigners described the bonanza as obscene.
The windfall comes from a complicated EU initiative called the Emissions Trading Scheme, designed to reduce pollution.
The electricity generators have been given 'permits' to emit climate-warming gases between 2008 and 2012, the second phase of the scheme.
Despite not paying for the permits, they have raised the price of wholesale electricity to reflect their supposed cost. Ofgem, the energy regulator, estimates the firms will make about £9bn from this.
Their extraordinary payday comes as a typical family's typical fuel bill has almost doubled over the last five years to over £1,000.
More than four million Britons are in fuel poverty.

Carl L Witcombe, Gwent, UK

National Energy Action (NEA) – the leading national fuel poverty charity – has expressed bitter disappointment that the Government has not used its Energy Bill, announced last month, to help tackle the problem of fuel poverty through the introduction of a social tariff for vulnerable energy consumers.

NEA is now calling on the Government to deliver its legally-binding commitment to ending fuel poverty – which affects 4 million UK households.

The leading fuel poverty charity called for the introduction of a universal, obligatory social tariff within the Energy Bill requiring energy suppliers to offer advantageous ‘social tariffs’ to their vulnerable customers.

Drastic increases in domestic fuel bills between 2003 and 2006 - 90% for gas and 60% for electricity - have resulted in fuel poverty doubling to a current level of 2.7 million households in England and with npower followed by the other energy companies putting gas and electricity prices up in double-digits.

Carl L Witcombe, Gwent, UK