In Dundee, a leading anti-poverty campaigner voiced a bleak picture for those barely coping on low incomes who are already being hit in the pocket for all the basics of everyday survival.

Jim Milne, chairman of Dundee Anti Poverty Forum, said the price of food had “gone through the roof” and the price of other commodities had been “escalating” for months.

“The power companies are forcing up prices time and again,” said Mr Milne. “People are being hit when they go to the shops and hit by fuel prices. People in rural areas need their cars as essential transport, not a luxury.

“They have to pay escalating prices for petrol.

“People are just finding it very, very difficult to cope with price rises for power on top of increases in other commodities that have been escalating over the past six months.”

He said more needed to be done by the utilities’ regulators to make sure “more is not creamed off the top” by companies making huge profits.

“It seemed when prices rose in one sector, companies in other sectors “took advantage of the situation” and raised their prices.

Mr Milne was at a conference recently called Heat or Eat, looking at the stark choices people on low incomes faced.

“People who are low paid or living on benefit are finding life very, very difficult,” he said.