CAMPAIGNERS blocked the entrance to Energy UK yesterday in protest over the thousands of people who died last winter due to cold homes.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed there were 18,200 of excess winter deaths last year, almost 80 per cent of those dying being over 75.

To mark another year in which steep energy bills claimed the lives of many, activists from Fuel Poverty Action marched to the headquarters of Britain's energy industry trade association in London's Regent Street. Its members, including EDF and British Gas, supply energy to 26 million homes.