E.ON boss says 40% of households could be drawn into fuel poverty by soaring energy prices this winter

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Up to 40% of households could be drawn into fuel poverty by soaring energy prices this winter, the boss of one of the UK’s largest energy providers has told Sky News.

Rising wholesale gas prices, fuelled by the war in Ukraine, mean the domestic energy price cap is forecast to increase from the current £1,971 for typical usage, to up to £3,420 in October, and as high as £3,850 in January.

Michael Lewis, the chief executive of E.ON, which supplies gas and electricity to almost four million households, said that without more direct government help millions of households will be spending more than 10% of their income on energy, the definition of fuel poverty.

“We called for more intervention earlier in the year as we could see up to 40% of our customer base going into fuel poverty,” he said.

“We would expect prices to be above £3,000, possibly up to £3,500, depending on how wholesale prices develop.

“Beyond that into January, we would certainly expect the high wholesale prices to feed into the price cap after Christmas and probably a further increase.

“So there’s no doubt about it, these prices are unprecedented.

“I’ve never seen anything this high in my 30 years in the industry, and certainly nothing that has increased so quickly. So there is a big challenge.”