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Britain’s savviest city when it comes to switching energy deals has been named. Households in St Albans, Herts, have collectively saved an impressive £2.1million since January.

Stockport takes second place, while Glasgow, Liverpool and London languish near the bottom of the switching table, according to comparison website uswitch.com.

More than half of bill payers are worried about how they will afford their winter energy bill.

If they are with the Big Six - British Gas, EON, Npower, SSE, Scottish Power and EDF – it’s no wonder as between them they have announced 10 price rises this year.

Uswitch reckons you can save up to £482 by shopping around.

Smaller firms continue to offer the best deals, People’s Energy offers the current cheapest tariff at £946. Yet, 75% of us stay with the giants.

Some households are wary of switching to smaller suppliers as six have gone bust this year, including Spark Energy and Extra Energy.

But there is a safety net for customers of energy firms that fail. Energy regulator Ofgem places them with another competitive supplier, so there is no disruption to supply.

Rik Smith of uswitch.com, said: “Energy companies respond best when they know consumers will move elsewhere if they’re not happy.”