MORE than a quarter of households across incoming Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s constituency are suffering from fuel poverty, with the figure only set to rise, campaigners warned today.

The End Fuel Poverty Coalition published estimates that 12,220 homes in Richmond, north Yorkshire, are struggling to afford their gas and electricity bills — 25.66 per cent of the total.

The shocking figure comes after the former chancellor’s predecessor in Downing Street, Liz Truss, used borrowed cash to freeze average annual energy bills at a new record high of £2,500 from this month.

The energy price guarantee scheme — originally planned for two years — has since been cut to just six months due to the hike in government borrowing costs following ex-chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s disastrous mini-budget in September. 

Axing the scheme in April 2023, when bills could top a crippling £4,000 a year, is likely to plunge nearly 40 per cent of homes in Mr Sunak’s constituency into fuel poverty, alongside 11 million households across Britain, the campaign group predicted.

Co-ordinator Simon Francis said: “The constant U-turns and paralysis in government has millions of victims: the people condemned to fuel poverty.

“People are now dreading the dark nights and cold weather. The NHS is at crisis point and will be unable to cope with the health impacts of people living in cold, damp homes.”

More than a tenth – 12.27 per cent – of households in Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s south-west Surrey seat are also in danger of being unable to keep the lights on, said the campaign group, which predicted the figure could rise to nearly a fifth if government help ends in the spring.

Mr Francis urged the former foreign secretary, who has pledged to protect “the most vulnerable” from April, to “urgently meet with charities and consumer groups to devise support plans for 2023 and beyond to stop even more households falling into fuel poverty.”

He also backed a call from the Warm This Winter campaign for £14 billion of additional support for families, including more investment in energy efficiency and renewable fuel sources alongside the immediate suspension of “forced transfers of households onto more expensive pre-payment meters.”