Warning as high energy prices likely to harm children's development

dailyrecord.co.uk:

UK charities have issued a stark warning about how high energy prices will affect children's development over the winter months.

A survey by YouGov for the charity National Energy Action (NEA) and the Food Foundation found that some 24% of parents out of 4,000 households are buying less food since the start of the year in order to afford essentials.

Around 28% have cut back on the quality of food, and 13% say they have have eaten cold meals or meals that do not require cooking to save money on energy bills.NEA said the number of UK households in fuel poverty will have increased from 4.5 million last October to 6.7 million now.

The average household energy bill will rise from £1,971 to a frozen £2,500 from October 1 under the energy price guarantee announced by Prime Minister Liz Truss earlier this month.Overall, household bills will be 96% higher than last year.NEA chief executive Adam Scorer said: "People have had to choose between heating and eating.