Gordon Brown's pledge to take the sting out of surging fuel prices will not prevent hard up west London pensioners from turning off their heating this winter, a consumer group has claimed.

Speaking at a Town Hall meeting of the Kensington & Chelsea Forum for Older Residents Allan Asher, head of Energywatch, said the government's
increase of cold weather payments to £25 a week and the promise of more cash for insulation will still leave many elderly people desperately out of pocket.

"None of these measures are new and nothing in this package is is going to address the real problem of high prices. That elderly people in Britain, the fourth richest country in the world, will be forced to save on basic heating this winter is shocking," he said.

Pressure is mounting on the government to introduce a windfall tax on the energy companies, who are raking in record profits on the back of the 35 per cent price spike.

Energywatch wants power companies to charge a 'social tariff' where the poorest pay the least for gas and electricity. "As it stands a single pensioner on pension credit receiving £124.05 a week will contribute the same amount as an energy company chief executive on a £1million salary - that can not be right," Mr Asher added.

Research says over 75s spend around 80 per cent of their time indoors and are most likely to need heating for most of the day. "We can't have a situation where pensioners are spending their days in shopping centres or libraries just to stay warm - it's scandalous," he added.

The major energy companies also came under fire at the Sept 12 meeting for penalising the poorest with prepay metres, which are often introduced after a customer defaults on a bill.