MORE action is needed to tackle fuel poverty as energy prices are likely to remain high for much of the year, a respected energy academic has said.

Professor Alex Kemp said the wholesale price of gas was unlikely to fall in the coming months and urged governments to focus their efforts on helping low-income households ­rather than “broad brush” ­approaches.

The Aberdeen University ­professor of petroleum economics has been on advisory panels for both the ­Scottish and UK Governments and has ­published more than 200 books and papers in the field.

Kemp said a large increase in ­demand for gas in Asia was driving up the commodity’s price, as countries moved away from coal as a fuel source in line with environmental commitments made around COP26.

He said: “Some countries, particularly big consuming countries in Asia (such as) China and India planned to reduce their use of coal very substantially. But they switched to gas. So a big increase in gas demand in Asia in particular, at a time when investment in new gas fields has been quite low because the price was very low.”

Kemp also said that while the Opec group of oil-exporting ­countries had recently agreed to increase oil ­production, they did not go as far as Western countries such as the US would have liked.

The UK is very reliant on gas and imports more than half of what it needs, he said, noting that switching homes from gas to other sources of energy was still an expensive process.

Kemp said: “The forward markets are showing that in a year, the (gas) price could come down.

“We are, of course, in a winter situation now when seasonally demand is much higher than in the summer.

“In the very near term we can’t expect much alleviation because ­supplies won’t increase – it will take some time.”

While the gas prices might drop in the summer, the decrease may not be “all that much”, he said.

Kemp said the Chancellor’s recent package of support would not remove fuel poverty in the next few months.

More than two thirds of people are worried about affording their energy bills this year while many already feel cold in their own homes, according to new research.

The Survation poll for Advice ­Direct Scotland also found that just under two thirds (65%) of people in Scotland said they have already ­limited their energy use in the past 12 months so they could afford to spend money on other goods or services, ­including food.

The research, released yesterday, was carried out days before energy regulator Ofgem revealed that fuel bills will typically rise by £693 a year in the UK from April.