The millionaire boss of energy company Utilita has warned Brits to change their energy consumption habits.
Utilita founder Bill Bullen also warned higher bills could lead to the deaths the elderly and the vulnerable over the coming winters.
Mr Bullen said people will die because they won’t be able to afford to put the heating on, cook warm meals or have hot water.
Energy prices are expected to soar after Ofgem’s price cap increases by 54% today.
“There is one thing that everyone can do and that is to think about their energy consumption and change their behaviour,” Mr Bullen said.
“And if you can afford to invest in your home then do that as well.
“Energy price rises are going to hit everybody. It’s going to cause everybody to make difficult decisions but some consumers are in a far worse position and this will be worse for them.”
He said there was “no question” this price rise would lead to the deaths of the elderly, adding “next winter it will be much much worse” and “much worse for children also”.
“People will see an extra £500 or £600 added to bills from October but the Chancellor is going to have finance that entirely for poorer households. We are going to be in the next couple of years like that,” he said.
It comes on the same day that the biggest jump in domestic energy bills in living memory has come into effect.
Households are also bracing for National Insurance contributions to increase by 1.25 percentage points on April 6.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said people do not “want a revolution” – they want to be able to afford food and their energy bills.
Speaking to Sky News, he said the Government does not get “the scale of the problem for millions and millions of people”.
He added: “People don’t want a revolution. They do want to know ‘how am I going to pay my energy bill which has just gone up today by hundreds of pounds’.
“I was in Stevenage last week talking to pensioners. They weren’t saying ‘Keir, we want the revolution’. They were saying ‘Keir, we’re really worried about our bills’.
“For people to make a choice between heating and eating – in 21st century Britain what people want to know is, is the Labour Party, does it understand those worries? The answer is yes, we do.”
He branded the Government’s response to the cost-of-living crisis as “pathetic” and said its decision to hike national insurance rates is “the wrong tax at the wrong time”.
