Two thirds of UK families to enter fuel poverty by January

If annual bills rise to £4,200, 66 per cent of families will be considered fuel-poor.

Nearly 46 million people in the UK could be in fuel poverty by next January, an analysis by researchers at the University of York has found.

Under current energy price cap forecasts, with annual bills set to rise from an average of £1,971 to £4,200, some 66 per cent of families will fall under the definition of fuel poverty – spending more than 10 per cent of their net income on energy. By comparison, only 19 per cent of British households were considered fuel-poor in 2019-20.