SHELL was admonished today for announcing it would return £2.9 billion to shareholders instead of cutting bills.

The oil and gas giant revealed its share buyback plan after its quarterly profits soared to £5.1bn.

It came as new polling, commissioned by the Warm This Winter campaign, found that 38 per cent of people from vulnerable households think they won’t or may not be able to afford to put the heating on at all this winter.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “This sums up everything that is wrong with our broken energy market. 

“Money that should have gone to cutting household bills has ended up in shareholder pockets. 

“The Conservatives have allowed the likes of Shell to cash in at the expense of struggling families. 

“The government must stop enabling this gross profiteering and impose a proper windfall tax.”

Warm This Winter spokeswoman Fi Waters said Shell’s profit announcement came only two days after BP on Tuesday posted a massive £2.7bn profit for just three months.

She said the poll’s findings were “shocking,” adding: “That’s pregnant women, the elderly, families with young kids, the poor and people with long-term illness.”

Her campaign group is calling for an emergency energy tariff that would use the existing energy price guarantee mechanism to fix the unit costs and standing charges for vulnerable groups at a lower level.

It says this would reduce eligible households’ monthly energy bills by approximately £87 from current levels, a saving of around 46 per cent.

Simon Francis, co-ordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: “As the government’s reliance on failed fossil fuels continues, the energy bills crisis is predicted to be so severe that we now need the Chancellor to introduce an emergency energy tariff to help keep people warm this winter.

“And while Shell’s global shareholders celebrate, we will be a nation sheltering in warm spaces, cowering in one room of our homes or wrapped up inside like the Michelin Man. This should not be acceptable in a modern society.”

Greenpeace UK climate adviser Charlie Kronick said: “Shell and new chief executive Wael Sawan are doubling down on oil and gas, posting billions in profit just as another huge storm batters the UK.

“People are sick of watching oil bosses feign concern about the planet while slashing jobs and investment in renewables and ploughing money into dividends, share buybacks, and new fossil fuel projects.”