Five million households face energy budget crunch as bills soar overnight

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Five million households will be forced to spend at least 10 per cent of their budget on energy bills after Friday’s price cap hike, according to the latest analysis. The price rises will double the number of households in “fuel stress” – a term for those spending 10 per cent or more of their income after housing costs on energy bills – overnight from 2.5 to 5 million in England alone, according to the Resolution Foundation think tank. Jonathan Marshall, senior economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: “Another increase in energy bills this autumn hastens the need for more immediate support, as well as a clear, long-term strategy for improving home insulation, ramping up renewable and nuclear electricity generation, and reforming energy markets so that families’ energy bills are less dependent on global gas prices.” Johnson told MPs on 9 March that he would be “setting out an energy independence plan for this country in the course of the next few days”. Met Office meteorologist Tom Morgan said: “People will wake up to temperatures just below freezing, -1C or -2C across most of England and Wales for example, but by the afternoon we’ll see temperatures at 8C or 9C.” He added: “Once again, on Friday night we’ll see temperatures widely fall below freezing across the whole of the UK and in the early hours of Saturday morning, possibly down to -4C, -5C even in the south of England.” The government is “in no doubt” that rising energy prices “will be a significant challenge for a majority of the British public”, No 10 said on Thursday.