Fuel poverty campaigners told Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday he needs to act now on the national crisis of cold homes.

Britain is second only to Estonia among European nations for the number of people who are struggling to pay their energy bills, according to research by the fuel poverty alliance Energy Bill Revolution.

The warning came as the government urged people to use their heating this winter as part of a plan to prevent some of the 24,000 avoidable deaths that occur each year.

Energy Bill Revolution, which includes charities Age UK, Barnardo's and National Energy Action and quango Consumer Futures, says the government is advocating quick fixes instead of getting to the root of the problem.

Energy Bill Revolution campaign director Ed Matthew said: ''Our political leaders are falling over themselves to come up with headline-grabbing ways to cut energy bills yet they fall woefully short of a true solution to the energy bill crisis.

''By far the biggest opportunity to cut energy bills is to fully insulate the UK's leaky homes.

"No other investment can do so much for so many. If the government is serious about solving this crisis it must make insulating homes the UK's number one infrastructure priority.''

The alliance said the wholesale cost of gas in Britain was much lower than in most European countries but households paid much higher bills due to the amount of heat lost from homes.

There are more than five million British households living in fuel poverty, defined as spending more than 10 per cent of their income on energy.