Wealthy households with holiday homes in the UK or a pied-a-terre in London will qualify for the £400 fuel allowance on each property.

This means that 772,000 second home owners will be credited with £800, amounting to £620m while a further 61,000 third home owners will see a £1,200 windfall, worth £73m.

Questioned about the universality of the scheme by MPs at a Treasury Committee hearing earlier this week, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: ‘That is the challenge with any universal policy. We had only two ways to do something about this. We are delivering this through energy bills, now you could choose to do it through council tax bills. Having gone through all the options, I don’t think there is a better way to do it. We think this is the most effective way to get help to a very large number of people who need it.’

Rob