SIR – Thanks to Alan Holdsworth (Letters, January 29), I was slow to realise his point.

True, I may have unintentionally ignored the fact that some prices people face rise faster than RPI, leaving people worse off.

However, if using the consumer – rather than retail – price index has happened since the coalition took power, the relatively higher inflation would have a proportionally small effect on essentials such as food.

Yes, some essentials such as gas and water are a rip-off since privatised. Who, for example, would suspect that Yorkshire Water’s present debt of £3.4 billion is only dwarfed by the £3.8 billion that the utility has paid to its parent company in dividends since privatisation? What could OUR water utility have done with £7.2 billion, (even though so “inefficient”)? The rip-off was worse under Labour!

I suspect that debt is a problem for most, particularly mortgages (just wait for interest rises!). I still maintain that Labour were crazy to embrace every house price increase, and other worst excesses of capitalism, particularly the unfettered financial sector. More than anything, this has resulted in a “cost-of-living” crisis.

John Hall, Pennithorne Avenue, Baildon