Gas and electricity bills could soar again this winter and the Government may need to give people more handouts to help pay for the rising costs, an expert has said. Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, told the BBC Governments need to prepare for another spike in energy prices.
Last winter the Government had to put an artificial cap on how much people pay and handed hundreds of pounds a month to every householder to cover part of the higher costs.
The price of gas and electricity bills only started to fall again at the start of July.
Mr Firol said: "In a scenario where the Chinese economy is very strong, buys a lot of energy from the markets, and we have a harsh winter, we may see strong upward pressure under natural gas prices, which in turn will put an extra burden on consumers."
A government spokesman said: "We spent billions to protect families when prices rose over winter covering nearly half a typical household's energy bill, with them set to fall by around £430 on average from this month."
