Households paid an average £1,360 in the third quarter of 2019, up from £1,318 recorded a year earlier.

By fuel type, electricity climbed £33 to £705 while gas bills increased by £9 to £655.

Looking over the past decade, this is the highest amount paid by consumers.

The statistics from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), also revealed that an estimated 1.5 million electricity customers changed supplier in Q3 2019, up nearly 7% from the previous year.

And 1.2 million gas customers switched, representing a near 3% increase from Q3 2018.

BEIS added that an average of 511,000 households per month switched electricity while 410,000 switched gas supplier between July and September 2019.

The statistics also revealed that in December 2019, unleaded petrol was on average 124.7p per litre, 3.1% higher than December 2018. However, this is 12% lower than the peak in April 2012.

The average diesel price was 129.8p per litre, 0.9% lower than a year earlier. Diesel has been more expensive than unleaded petrol over the past three years and is currently 5p per litre more expensive than unleaded. However, this is lower than the difference of 10.3p per litre recorded in March 2019.

Crude oil prices started the year at around $64 per barrel and rose steadily to $71 in April 2019. Prices have since dropped to around $61 per barrel.

In the first half of December 2019, crude oil prices averaged $63 which was 9.5% higher than in the previous year and 0.8% higher than in the previous month.