A fresh call has been made for the UK Government to end unfair electricity charges which add hundreds of pounds to family power bills in the Highlands.

North MP Ian Blackford demanded that ministers put a stop to the “discrimination” in charging and introduce a universal network charge.

The region pays the highest bills in the UK, despite producing a surplus of energy, because of a regional system for distribution costs.

The Press and Journal has campaigned for an end to the “postcode lottery” in recent years, but the Conservative government scrapped plans to alleviate the pressure on Highland consumers when they won a majority in 2015.

Prime Minister Theresa May was grilled on the issue at Prime Minister’s questions in Westminster this week by Mr Blackford, the SNP MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber.

Last night, he said: “Winter is a difficult time for many people but it is especially so for people in the Highlands and islands who are penalised with higher energy costs because of where they live – despite living in an area with some of the harshest weather conditions in the UK.

“Across the UK there are 14 regional markets with different levels of network charges meaning that electricity distribution charges for the north of Scotland are 84% higher than the charges for London and the standard unit price is 2p a kw/hr more than in other parts of the UK.

“It’s true that 2p doesn’t sounds like much but it is a premium of 15% for consumers in the north of Scotland.

“And in rural Scotland where households in off-gas areas rely on using domestic heating oil and solid fuel, costs are even higher with energy bills, on average, around £1,000 more than the national average.

“It is time the UK Government introduced a universal network charge and put an end to the discrimination and unfairness that exists within our energy market.”

Responding to his questions in the Commons on Wednesday, Mrs May said: “The honourable gentleman draws attention to the fact that geography of course has an impact on these matters.

“He talks about living in the coldest and windiest places, and obviously one interesting issue in Scotland is the opportunity for renewables there.

“I can tell him, however, that we are looking at making sure that energy markets in the UK are indeed working properly.”