SIR – Referenda seem to be popular at the moment with one being held next year in Scotland on independence and another in the next few years regarding membership of the EU.

Whatever the eventual outcome of those, it’s certain if one was held right now to decide ‘the most unpopular private businesses in this country’, the energy companies would surely top the poll.

We hear that many people living on meagre incomes in our country (the seventh-richest in the world) are living in fuel poverty, some choosing whether to spend what they have on food or heat their homes.

At the same time the profits of these private monopolies go on booming, making sure that while many stress and worry over how to stay warm in their homes, energy firms’ shareholders remain happy.

Ed Miliband puts forward the modest suggestion of having an energy price freeze for a short while, but what most people want (confirmed by polls) is to see these energy companies re-nationalised and under Government control.

David Hornsby, West View Avenue, Wrose