Gas bills are set to shoot up by £159 as part of Boris Johnson's drive to hit the UK's net zero carbon by 2050, ministers will confirm next week.
The Prime Minister will announce green surcharges on electricity will be shifted on to gas in a move designed to nudge customers toward using low-carbon alternatives to gas.
But it comes as factories grapple with an energy crisis that threatens to close them down and as customers hit by a dual welfare cuts and tax squeeze face a cost-of-living nightmare.
Sources have confirmed, however, that the Government is intent on pushing through a number of measures ahead of the COP26 UN climate change summit later this month.
The Tories' Heating and Boiler strategy is aimed at making electricity cheaper and gas more expensive over the course of the next 15 years.
Mr Johnson will ban the installation of new gas boilers after 2035, with Brits handed subsidies of between £4,000 and £7,000 for electric heat pumps.
Households will be pushed to switch to cleaner energy via the green levies being switched to gas - a move which will see the average gas bill hiked up by £159.
A decision on replacing the gas network with hydrogen will be put back to 2026, amid safety concerns.
A Whitehall source said: “As we move to a world where we use more electricity to heat our homes and charge our cars, we need to address the artificially high price of electricity.”
They add: “Over the next decade, households will use more electricity - but pay less for it. And use less gas - but pay more for it.”
The PM could be on a collision course Tory backbenchers, however, with many uneasy about the hike in National Insurance and the £20 cut to Universal Credit.
Almost a fifth of the UK’s carbon footprint comes from heating homes and workplaces, however, with most reliant on the use of gas.
Ministers have tried to lay the blame for soaring gas prices with Russia.
Treasury Minister Lord Agnew told the Sun: "The current squeeze on gas prices is nothing to do with the quantity of gas available. It is a geopolitical move by Russia to put pressure on Europe and we are caught up in that.”
