More than one in 10 households are struggling with energy costs in England, with 2.28 million homes in fuel poverty in 2012, official figures show.
The number of fuel-poor families fell by almost five per cent in 2012, the latest year for which figures are available, from 2.39 million homes in 2011 – but it is expected to rise again by 2014 to 2.33 million, largely due to increases in energy costs .
The gap between the bills fuel-poor households face and what they can afford to pay was £443 (€537) on average in 2012, the latest year for which figures are available, but is expected to increase to £480 (€596) on average by 2014.
The latest figures from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) prompted renewed calls for action to improve energy efficiency and bring down bills.
They come as the Big Six energy companies have been urged to explain to customers what impact falling wholesale energy prices will have on bills, with gas prices for next day delivery reaching their lowest level since September 2010 in early June.
The government has changed the measure for fuel poverty to take into account households with both high energy bills and low incomes.
Under the old measure, which included everybody who had to spend more than 10 per cent of their income to heat their homes properly, some 3.05 million English households were in fuel poverty in 2012, down on the 3.2 million homes in fuel poverty in 2011.
The government has faced criticism for “shifting the goalposts’’ to bring down the number of households classed as in fuel poverty.
The report from Decc said the fall in the number of households in fuel poverty in 2012 was mainly due to increasing incomes for higher income fuel poor families.
Those living in private rented accommodation continued to have the highest rates of fuel poverty.
Across England, 10.4 per cent of homes were classed as fuel poor, while regionally the West Midlands had the highest levels of people struggling with bills, at 15 per cent.
The lowest was the South East with eight per cent.
Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said: “I am encouraged by this further modest fall in the number of households living in fuel poverty.
“This welcome progress shows that, while we can’t control volatile energy prices, we can continue to improve the energy efficiency of our housing stock.
“The Coalition Government is doing everything it can to help hard-pressed families keep their energy bills down.”
He said energy efficiency programmes − the energy company obligation and the green deal − had supported more than 372,000 low income and vulnerable households. And he said the warm home discount provided 1.2 million of the lowest income pensioners with £135 (€168) of their electricity bills, while efforts to reduce bills by £50 (€62) on average would also help.