19:05
Tieng Anh Vui
A quarter of people have put up with "unacceptably cold" homes in the past year as they struggle to pay bills, a BBC Radio 5 live survey has suggested.
More than a third also said they were concerned about how they will pay their heating bills this winter.
Some 63% of the 1,035 UK adults surveyed said they had cut their energy use because of rising costs.
Almost three-quarters believe the UK's energy costs are unreasonable, and 69% said the firms should be nationalised.
While there was support for renewable energy resources in principle - 84% would welcome more solar panels in their area - the prospect of reducing energy prices was also important.
Sixty-seven percent of people said they would support more coal, oil and gas stations being built in the UK if it brought energy prices down.
ComRes interviewed 1,035 UK adults by telephone between the 30 August and 1 September 2013.
'Hard-working family'
Jean Clements, from Denton, Greater Manchester, said she has struggled to pay the "spiralling" energy bills since her mechanic husband took a pay cut.
The 39-year-old, who gave up work to look after their five-year-old son, said they got into debt with British Gas at Christmas and they have since installed payment meters.
"It took three months to install them, so we ended up about £700 in debt. At the moment, we are having to pay about £40 a week, £20 in each meter, and it's difficult to maintain.
"Pre-paid meters are about 7% dearer but the benefit is you are not going to get any scary quarterly bill or a bounced direct debit."
She is worried about the onset of winter, especially if it is a harsh one.
"The government needs to be able to work a bit more with Ofgem to regulate the prices and the profits the energy suppliers are making," she said.
"I don't expect handouts. We are a hard-working family but it would be nice if we could get the energy bills reduced."
Shadow energy secretary Caroline Flint told BBC Radio 5 live the government's energy strategy was a "disgrace".
She says the government's own figures on the fuel poverty gap - the difference between what households with high energy bills pay out for gas and electricity and the official poverty line - show it has increased by more than 12% in the last two years.
"This is yet more evidence that David Cameron's failure to get tough with the energy giants has pushed millions of vulnerable households even deeper into fuel poverty," she said.
"It is a disgrace that this government has cut help for people in fuel poverty at the same time as giving millionaires a tax cut."
The Department of Energy and Climate Change said it was determined to tackle what it called the "scourge" of fuel poverty.
"Two million households received cuts to their bills last winter under the Warm Home Discount and the budget will continue to increase each year, up to £320m for 2015/16," a spokesman said.
The government was also pressing the energy firms to make sure low-income households were not stuck on high tariffs, he added.
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