Gas prices surged in September due to a number of factors including high global demand, a cold winter last year and tighter gas supplies from Russia.

The new report finds that the number of families who are expected to have to spend at least 10 per cent of their family budgets on energy bills will treble overnight to 6.3 million households when the new cap is introduced on 1 April.

The proportion of English households defined as living in ‘fuel stress’ is currently 9 per cent but this could leap to 27 per cent when the price cap rises by more than 50 per cent this April to around £2,000 per year. The energy regulator, Ofgem, will announce the new price cap level on 7 February.

The think tank estimates that the government will need to spend more than £7bn in 2022 to offset the effect of soaring energy prices for households.

Levels of fuel stress are set to be highest in the North East and the West Midlands (33 and 32 per cent), among pensioner households...