(Bloomberg) -- Britain’s government is under renewed pressure to offer financial support for household energy bills this winter as costs are expected to rise again. 

While energy suppliers will offer rebates, grants and other cost-relief measures for those who need it most, there should be a support from the state as well, executives from utilities Centrica Plc to EON SE and Octopus Energy Ltd. told a UK parliamentary committee on the country’s preparedness for winter. 

“We will be implementing something that goes towards a social tariff, but we are limited in what we can do on our own,” said EON UK Chief Executive Officer Chris Norbury. Britain’s worst cost-of-living crisis in decades goes beyond energy, added Chris O’Shea, CEO of Centrica, the country’s biggest household energy supplier. 

Millions of Britons were pushed into fuel poverty last year with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine upending global commodity markets and driving energy prices to record highs. The number of the excess winter deaths in England, Scotland and Wales rose to 4,706, up from 3,186 the year before, as result of the crisis, campaign groups told the committee.

The situation may get even worse this winter, with many vulnerable households forced to hope for mild weather, said Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition.

While energy bills will decline from current levels next month, following an approved cut in the UK’s price cap, costs remain almost double pre-crisis levels. The recent jump in Europe’s wholesale natural gas prices amid the threat of supply disruptions in Australia may see the price cap rebound at the start of 2024. 

Suppliers have already called on the government to introduce a social tariff, which would allow vulnerable households to pay below-cost rates. 

Charities and activist groups back the idea, with Gillian Cooper, head of energy policy for the Citizens Advice consumer group, telling the committee it could be done through “general taxation” rather than by raising energy bills for everyone else.

--With assistance from Todd Gillespie.

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