LONDON, December 16 /PRNewswire/ -- As the energy regulator Ofgem announces today (Tuesday) that households continue to pay too much for fuel, the UK's biggest union, Unite, says that the time for talking to the energy companies must now come to an end.

The time for tough talk at the greedy energy companies is over. The energy profiteers must not be given yet more time to delay while hard-pressed households are being told that they must pay sky high heating costs, said Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of Unite.

Energy companies in this country have seen their profits leap by an incredible 538 per cent in the last five years. That is money they have used to line shareholders' and executives' pockets, yet all consumers have had is price pain.

This continued refusal to pass on the drop in wholesale prices now as this winter bites means Government now has no other option but to tax them on their obscene profits. That way GBP250 can be put into the pockets of some six million struggling households to help them pay this year's bills.

The energy companies have behaved shamefully in recent times and abused their position as a provider of an everyday essential. Ofgem and the Government have given them long enough to stop ripping off the public - only a windfall tax and fuel price capping can now restore some justice to the one-sided UK energy market.

For further information contact Pauline Doyle on +44(0)7976-832-861