Households in Gedling borough will see their energy bills soar as the price cap is hiked to £3,549 a year, plunging many into financial hardship.

The record 80% hike in October, announced by the regulator Ofgem, will see a typical default tariff customer paying an extra £1,578.

The rise follows a 54% increase in April, which saw average bills surge to £1,971 a year.

More worryingly, it’s estimated 4.5 million pre-payment meter customers, who are often the most vulnerable and already in fuel poverty, will see their average annual bill set to go up to £3,608.

Ofgem’s chief executive Jonathan Brearley said: “We know the massive impact this price cap increase will have on households across Britain and the difficult decisions consumers will now have to make.

“I talk to customers regularly and I know that today’s news will be very worrying for many.

“The price of energy has reached record levels driven by an aggressive economic act by the Russian state. They have slowly and deliberately turned off the gas supplies to Europe causing harm to our households, businesses and wider economy. Ofgem has no choice but to reflect these cost increases in the price cap.

“The government support package is delivering help right now, but it’s clear the new prime minister will need to act further to tackle the impact of the price rises that are coming in October and next year.

“We are working with ministers, consumer groups and industry on a set of options for the incoming prime minister that will require urgent action.

“The response will need to match the scale of the crisis we have before us. With the right support in place and with regulator, government, industry and consumers working together, we can find a way through this.”

People across Gedling borough who live in homes without driveways will soon be able to install electric car charging points outside their properties following a £1.34 million investment in new underground cabling.

The move is intended to help more people easily switch to electric vehicles.

The funding has been awarded by the Government to Nottinghamshire County Council as part of a pilot scheme.

The Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) pilot project will see Nottinghamshire County Council and the industry work together to channel 300 electric vehicle cables under roads across the county.

Councillor Neil Clarke (Con), the council’s Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment, said having an electric vehicle “shouldn’t just be restricted to those with private parking”.

The programme would provide eligible households without off-street parking the option to ask the County Council’s highway contractors, Via East Midlands Ltd, to install cable channels from their property and underneath any pavement outside so that they can charge a vehicle on the street.

Households would have to buy and install their own approved charge points with sockets to get up and running.

Nottinghamshire has been awarded £1.34m, made up of £774,000 from the Government and £360,000 from EV industry operators.

The Council will now work with Government to finalise the plans, with the aim of launching programme within months.

Penney Poyzer, a West Bridgford anti-waste campaigner and electric car owner, said: “It’s got to be good news because the big drawback is the more EV drivers there are – we’ve got to extend the network of charge points.

“In Nottingham city, we are well served but in the rural areas we need to see more access. It’s good to see the focus on residential appeal too.”

Speaking of her own “great” EV, she said: “You can get something called range anxiety [when you fear running out of power] and it took me about three months to get over it.

“But there’s a good network where you can put in your route and it plans out where your nearest charging points are.

“The funding is certainly a good start but in parallel, I want to see the strategy for increasing renewable production.

“The big critical point is if you’re charging your car and the provider isn’t using renewable sources.

“We also need far more support from the government and the extension of subsidies for people buying EVs because they tend to be more expensive.”

The scheme is part of wider Government plans to install more than 1,000 new electric vehicle charge points nationally, at a cost of £450m.

Councillor Clarke said: “This is excellent news for Nottinghamshire and means we can accelerate the roll-out of the proposed EV cable channel project on a much wider scale, potentially enabling delivery of 300 EV cable channels by 31 March 2023.

“The Government themselves recognised in their feedback to our bid that ‘a large number of people will be able to benefit from charging their vehicle at home where they previously couldn’t’ and we are proud to be delivering this for the people of Nottinghamshire.

“The approval of our bid to roll the EV cable channel pilot out more widely across Nottinghamshire means we will be reducing inequality between households with and without off-street parking.

“As a county, we must do all that we can to protect the environment, and that’s why it’s important that having an electric vehicle shouldn’t just be restricted to those with private parking.

“Nottinghamshire’s successful LEVI funding bid will help cover the costs of the delivery of the EV cable channels, which would otherwise have been funded by the household. A subsidised proposal offers a more affordable, accessible option for eligible Nottinghamshire households.”

“We are on a mission to make Nottinghamshire healthier, more prosperous and greener and initiatives like this one are a step further towards achieving our green ambitions.”

Decarbonisation Minister Trudy Harrison added: “We want to expand and grow our world-leading network of EV charge points, working closely with industry and local government, making it even easier for those without driveways to charge their electric vehicles and support the switch to cleaner travel.

“This scheme will help to level up electric vehicle infrastructure across the country, so that everyone can benefit from healthier neighbourhoods and cleaner air.”