A shocking 48 per cent of pensioner households in West Dunbartonshire cannot afford to heat their homes.

Fuel poverty is defined as needing to pay more than 10 per cent of income on fuel bills.

Charities have hit out at the big energy suppliers and the Scottish Government for not doing enough for the most vulnerable in society, especially in the winter months.

Norman Kerr, director of national fuel poverty charity Energy Action Scotland, responding to the new figures, said: “The figure for 2013 is the highest level of fuel poverty ever recorded in Scotland.

“We believe that the figure today would exceed a million households. These shocking figures mean that far too many people in Scotland are living in fuel poverty and can’t afford to be warm at home. With just two years to go until the Scottish Government has to meet the duty set out in the Housing Act to end fuel poverty, it is a great disappointment that the number of people living in cold homes is still going up.” The figures also show that 16 per cent of families in West Dunbartonshire currently live in fuel poverty, which is below the national average.

Dumbarton and Vale Jackie Baillie has spoken out on the debate and said: “As winter bites the revelation that two million people are living in fuel poverty will shock the country.

“An increase on the previous year of almost 300,000 household is scandalous. Yet we know, by the Scottish Government’s own admission, that they underspent their own budget.” However, speaking during a debate on the issue in Holyrood this week, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “Since 2009, we have invested more than £300 million on a raft of fuel poverty and energy efficiency programmes, and we will spend a further £94 million this year and a further £94 million next year.

“Nearly one in three households—about 700,000 households in Scotland—has now received energy efficiency support.”