Fuel poverty households rose by 1m

Around 3.5 million households were living in fuel poverty during 2006, official figures have shown.

Fuel poverty is defined as when a household spends ten per cent or more of its annual income on gas and electricity bills.

The figure for 2006 represents a rise of one million from the previous year, with a 22 per cent rise in bills deemed the chief reason for the growing problem.

Over this period, gas prices rose by half compared with 2003, while electricity became a third more costly.

Debt charities claimed that the data indicates that fuel poverty is far more prevalent than has been suggested and called on the government to take action to address the problem.

Mervyn Kohler, special adviser at Help the Aged, told the Guardian: "Fuel poverty is escalating out of control and the response from government has been completely feeble.

"What is needed is a government strategy that combines both short- and long-term solutions – crisis payments to help with the here and now, and in the longer term improvements to the energy efficiency of our housing stock."