Letter: Chilling costs

BRITISH Gas doubled its profits for the first six months of the year due to the very cold winter and its continued high domestic gas and electricity prices (your report 29 July).

The company has the audacity to say that this was despite people using less fuel even though the winter was prolonged.

Well, millions of poor and old people were too frightened to use their heating amid the bitter weather; so many risked freezing to death or dying of other cold-related illnesses as statistics are likely to show when published later this year. This continued profiteering at the expense of the poor and the elderly is absolutely shameful.

SIMON ICKE

Aston Clinton

Buckinghamshire