Fuel poverty Households braced for another winter of punishing bills

As the energy price cap rises by a further 2% today, grim figures showing the level of debt owed to suppliers are amplifying calls for action by the Treasury and regulator

- Jillian Ambrose Energy correspondent

Three and a half years after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine plunged Europe into an energy supply crisis, millions of households in Britain are bracing for another winter battling the rising cost of gas and electricity.

Today, the quarterly cap on energy prices will rise again. Despite a fall in wholesale gas prices over recent months, the cap will climb by 2% to £1,755 for a typical annual dual-fuel bill, to cover the rising costs of UK energy policies and network upgrades.

Bills are now far lower than at the peak of the energy crisis when the government was forced to step in to subsidise costs, but they remain almost £600 a year higher than before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. And while the price cap has fallen, households in Britain have racked up growing debts.

The most recent estimates by the industry regulator, Ofgem, put the money owed to energy suppliers at a record high of £4.4bn as of June, up more than £750m on a year earlier. In the same month, official government figures revealed that a record proportion of British households were unable to pay their energy bills by direct debit because there was not enough money in their bank accounts.

Simon Francis, a coordinator at the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said the figures should "ring alarm bells" in the Treasury because they show that the "energy bill crisis is not over". "It is simply unsustainable for consumer energy debt to continue to grow unchecked," he said.

The risks for households struggling to pay their bills are clear: the coalition has warned of thousands of winter deaths linked to freezing homes, fears for vulnerable children living in cold, damp conditions, and added pressures on the NHS from poorly heated housing.