About a quarter of people in the UK think the soaring energy bills would not allow them to turn on heating during the upcoming winter.
According to a survey conducted by the London-based market research consultancy firm Savanta ComRes, 23 per cent of adults would not turn their heating on at all during the cold season. The figure rose to 27 per cent for parents with children aged below 18 years.
Some 2,000 adult Britons were approached for the July 29-30 poll, commissioned by the Liberal Democrats.
However, regulator Ofgem said last week that the household energy cap would be increased to an average of £3,549 per year starting on October 1 from the current £1,971.
Some 69 per cent of the respondents of the survey said they would use heating sparingly.
While 11 per cent of all adults said they would borrow money to keep their houses warm, 17 per cent of people with children aged below 18 came with the same response.
Data from the Office for National Statistics showed that the annual inflation in July climbed to a new 40-year high of 10.1 per cent on the back of surging food prices, worsening the cost-of-living crisis.
With the central bank’s priority being taming inflation, economists fear the country would slip into recession at the end of the year, forcing low-income groups to choose between eating and heating.
Liberal Democrats blamed the lame duck government for not saving families and pensioners from making “heart-breaking decisions”. The centrist party has called for scrapping the energy price cap rise.
Its spokesperson Christine Jardine said, “it is a national scandal that parents are having to choose between heating their homes and feeding their children”.
“Britain is on the brink of the worst cost-of-living crisis in a century,” Jardine told The Telegraph as she predicted that the next prime minister - either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak - would not do away with the rise in the energy price ceiling.
She said oil and gas companies reaping record profits should be taxed more “to save British families and pensioners”.
Cost-of-living crisis: Nearly one in four Britons will not turn on heating this winter
11 per cent of adults polled said they would borrow money to keep their houses warm.
A protestor is detained by the police during a demonstration against the proposed site of the new Chinese Embassy, outside Royal Mint Court, in London. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso. 
