A SIGNIFICANT humanitarian crisis blighting millions of children’s development is on the way if the government does not act to prevent British households from plunging into poverty, experts have warned.

High fuel costs and rising poverty are damaging health and this “profound impact” will worsen over the coming winter, widening inequality, according to a report by the UCL Institute of Health Equity (IHE).

It comes as a leaked Treasury analysis today revealed that Britain’s big gas and electricity producers could make excess profits of up to £170 billion over the next two years.

Bloomberg News reported that around 40 per cent of excess profits will go to the big power producers despite rocketing wholesale costs due to the supplies from Russia being cut.

IHE director Professor Michael Marmot warns that growing up in cold homes will have “dangerous consequences” for many children now and into adulthood.

The report raises fears that thousands of extra deaths could occur and the health and development of up to 10 million children could be affected directly or indirectly.

Cold homes adversely affect children’s development and cause and worsen respiratory conditions and mental health problems.

Children living in cold homes are less likely to be able to do their homework, meaning they could fall behind at school and be more likely to take up low-paid unstable work as adults.

There could also be indirect effects such as child abuse as families face “intolerably stressful” challenges in keeping their children fed and warm.

More than half of households will be in fuel poverty by January without government intervention, according to the University of York.

Estimates suggest around one in 10 excess winter deaths in England are directly attributable to fuel poverty, and more than a fifth attributable to cold homes, the IHE report says.

Last winter in England there were an estimated 63,000 excess deaths, including deaths from coronavirus, with around 6,000 estimated to be because of fuel poverty.

The IHE said it fears numbers this winter will be “much higher.”

It warned that the scale of the crisis means that help aimed solely at the poorest “will not be enough,” although poorer households should receive proportionally more help.