July 17: Energy giants and the watchdogs with no bite

AT least Jayne Dowle’s woeful experience with British Gas (The Yorkshire Post, July 13) involved live people, rather than button-pushing, disembodied voices and “music” – of a sort. Based on my own experience, that’s progress.

For decades, the “regulators and “watchdogs” have neither regulated nor bitten for the benefit of the general public. Westminster voices have “urged” and “suggested”, but the closest to effective action was Ed Miliband’s ill-judged promise to cap prices. This produced a petulant threat of power cuts, followed by reams of paper assuring us that they – the energy giants – really were on our side.

Given the outcome of the election, do British Gas directors have any reason to fear that their excessive profits, salaries and bonuses are under serious threat, beyond finger-wagging?

From: Coun Tim Mickleburgh (Lab), Grimsby.

MY annoyance with British Gas is that after abolishing standing charges, they brought them back again. So as someone who has the company supplying both my gas and electricity, I found that as a low user, 75 per cent of my last bill was made up of standing charges.

What is the incentive to save when you get stung in such a fashion?