Scottish Power chief calls for £1,000 energy discount

Ofgem increased the energy price cap by 54% in April, leading to average household bills reaching £1,971 a year.

Energy market intelligence firm Cornwall Insight forecast the cap to rise by around £600 in October 2022 to £2,595. However, it would only drop from that level by around £300 in spring 2023, and sustain that for winter 2023/24.

Anderson warned of another £900 increase in energy bills this winter, and called for action “now”.

"We need to act and we need to act quickly, because that will create huge amounts of pain and difficulty for a whole load of families across the whole of the UK," Anderson said.

"I think [with] £1,000 on top of what the government have already done, then we start to get bills closer to where they used to be."

He said support should be targeted at the most vulnerable, such as those on universal credit or with pre-payment meters, and that an October-ready scheme would need to be agreed by July.

Anderson criticised the government’s plan to loan households £200 towards their energy bills as not enough.

He believed his proposed £1,000 discount could be repaid via households’ energy bills over the next 10 years or recovered via taxation.

“I can’t help customers, on my own, deal with this price and deal with, in effect, for over a period of 18 months, what would be a 200% increase in their energy bill.

"That requires the government, the regulator and the industry all to work together to help sort this out," Anderson said.