FUEL poverty is set to increase in the North-East, which could contribute to more winter deaths, experts have warned.

British Gas recently announced gas prices will go up by 12.4 per cent and electricity by 9.4 per cent.

Newcastle firm Eaga Partnership has warned the rises will increase fuel poverty and affect vulnerable members of society.

Britain has the worst winter deaths rate in Europe, twice as high as Germany and the Netherlands, and for every one per cent rise in prices, 50,000 people will fall into fuel poverty.

Figures from the Office of National Statistics show 41,992 households in the North-East do not have a central heating system, with 3,835 homes in Middlesbrough and 3,112 in Darlington without it.

Eaga Partnership manages Warm Front, a ten-year strategy to prevent deaths among vulnerable people as a result of fuel poverty, for the Department for the Environment.

More than 30,000 people die every year in Britain from living in cold, damp homes and millions more suffer cold-related illnesses.

Warm Front provides 100 per cent grants for home insulation and heating improvements, up to a value of £2,500, and is available to homeowners and tenants who receive certain income and disability benefits.

Jack Harrison, Eaga's deputy chief executive, said: "Many of those we have already helped by installing central heating may now fall back into fuel poverty as a direct result of those price rises.

"The people we work with are among the most vulnerable communities in the UK."

Anyone wanting to know if they are eligible for a grant should call 0800 316 6007 between Monday and Friday from 8am to 6pm.