MORE than 465,000 households in Britain will experience fuel poverty this winter due to January’s energy price cap increase, new figures show.

Data science firm Outra revealed that the increase on January 1 led to a 12.2 per cent rise in households affected by fuel poverty compared with October 2023.

A household is in fuel poverty when they spend more than 10 per cent of their income on heating.

Britain now has 4.29 million households experiencing fuel poverty, up from 3.83 million, the research found.

Birmingham has the largest increase in households entering fuel poverty, with an extra 19,000, followed by South Yorkshire with 17,200, Newcastle with 12,100, and Glasgow with 11,900.

The energy price cap, which limits the amount a supplier can charge per unit of energy, has led to an average increase of £94 per year on energy bills, from £1,834 to £1,928.

Outra said these figures indicate that while inflation has eased, the cost-of-living crisis is still dominating British households.

The firm’s chief data and technology officer Peter Jackson said: “Our household-level data analysis shows that, while fuel prices have dropped from their peak, financial pain felt by those struggling with a sharp rise in household bills is far from over.

It follows a Resolution Foundation report that said 38 per cent of people have reported a worsening financial situation — more than twice the number of those who reported an improving one.

The report said that an increase in benefits and wages may help some people, but those who have not benefited from the rise may be suffering “disproportionately.”

The foundation predicts that by October 2023 “severe levels” of food insecurity may affect a fifth of people — almost three times the number of people affected before the pandemic.

Simon Francis, co-ordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: “These figures would appear to underestimate the levels of real suffering. Data from the Warm This Winter campaign shows that 8.3 million adults live in cold, damp homes and millions of these suffer from frequent levels of mould.

“Most worryingly, the levels of mould in homes with young children or expectant mothers are also running into the hundreds of thousands.

“We need to see an emergency energy tariff for the vulnerable, an industry-wide help to repay scheme for those in energy debt and cross-party consensus on a long-term plan to upgrade Britain’s cold homes.”