IT HAS been revealed that several big energy companies, including British Gas and nPower, have failed to carry out even six per cent of the energy efficiency improvement measures to vulnerable people’s homes they are obliged to perform under the Energy Company Obligation or ECO levy on our energy bills.

To hear these same companies pretending the levy is responsible for rising bills compounds their disgraceful conduct; the truth is they don’t want to see homes made energy-efficient as this would erode their profits.

Those who attack ‘green taxes’ as a result of this whinging from the big energy companies are being played for fools.

In this context it is heartening to read in The Press of November 30n that 256 1970s council flats in Harrogate are having external insulation fitted, courtesy of the ECO levy. These improvements, which should save £500 a year on each flat’s heating bills, are exactly what we need to see up and down the country. While I would prefer the energy companies to continue to be obliged to implement these energy-efficiency measures, the important thing is that the work gets done. Let’s see all badly built homes improved and heating bills reduced permanently.

Christian Vassie, Blake Court, Wheldrake, York.