The audacity of energy giants never ceases to amaze me. I hear the fat cat energy bosses are demanding a Treasury bailout of £20billion in order to keep household bills down.

As global gas prices continue to rise, ministers have held crisis meetings with suppliers. The outcome was that the gas providers have said they face going bust if the energy price cap is not lifted substantially in April.

At the moment customers are protected by the cap currently at £1,277 a year but that could rise to as high as £1,995 a year. The energy companies say there is no way they can survive unless the high prices are passed on to the bill payers or else subsidised with a large cash injection. Ministers have until February to work out a solution or else bills will go up by as much as 50%.

The Government apparently is said to be looking at ways it can help the providers but at the moment no solution has been found.

One way Boris Johnson could help us all is by scrapping VAT on all energy bills but to date he has rejected the move as he says it would also cut bills for better-off families. So what if it doe? That is a ridiculous comment to make.

Soaring costs now threaten to inflict genuine hardship especially on the most vulnerable people in our society and this would at least be a small step in the right direction.

The Government needs to think long and hard on this matter and come up with a solution that works for everyone and sooner rather than later.

Mrs L M Jackson