IN this present state of tightening belts and costly energy prices, can I be the only person who wonders why the Government has not taken steps to remove that unnecessary level of bureaucratic inefficiency introduced by the Conservative last government? I refer to the so-called energy service providers.

They literally do not provide us with anything.

The only thing they appear to do is to provide jobs for the middle to upper classes. First one service provider is cheaper than another and we are all encouraged to switch.

Then their prices go up and another one becomes cheaper and we are all encouraged to switch again.

When they first came in, I switched. I then received a bill for thousands of pounds. I tried to switch again, but the new one said they could not take me on because my annual consumption was over 73,245kwh. For a terraced house?

So, I ended up back where I started with the original provider and have stayed put.

We encounter these switch requesters at the supermarket, in the street or from cold call phone calls.

We indirectly pay their salaries via our bills.

When all comes to all, they are playing snakes and ladders with our money. Would it not be simpler and more economical to have one body and a fair, lowest possible price for all as the price of energy would dictate?

Roy Caswell, Beverley Road, Bolton