Times letters: The costs of an energy independent future | Comment

Sir, Your leading article is right to recognise that although the chancellor must reduce the government’s exposure to volatile energy prices, he must be prepared to offer targeted relief on energy bills where appropriate (“Ending Energy Subsidies”, Dec 30).

As a children’s charity delivering more than 440 services across the UK, helping more than 671,000 children, young people and families last year, we are already weathering the impacts of Covid-19 and the cost of living. Soaring energy bills are a sudden, unexpected and unavoidable increase in our running costs. Most of our services support very young children or those with profound disabilities, so we have very limited scope to cut energy consumption.

During the pandemic, the government recognised the need to support charities