The most deprived households are switching energy supplier more often than some of their better-off neighbours, according to data from ElectraLink.

The most switches had been initiated by the least-deprived households, the figures showed, but switching was fairly common behaviour across all the groups.

ElectraLink said: “In order to start understanding the customer engagement with the energy market we have taken the switching dataset and compared it with the index of multiple deprivation.

“This indicates that energy switching and therefore engagement is not only carried out by the least deprived sections of society and that there are factors influencing both ends of the index to switch supplier.”

There was least switching in households in the 60-80% group, who suffered deprivation but were not in the most deprived group.

It should be noted, however, that the customers switching in the past five years represent only 40% of households in GB, and 60% remain with their incumbent supplier.