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Keith Anderson, chief executive of Scottish Power, told the BBC that another expected rise in energy bills in October to between £2,500 and £3,000 a year could see huge losses for suppliers and many customers unable to pay their bills.

He warned regulator Ofgem that setting the new price cap too low could risk suppliers collapsing or the foreign owned firms leaving the market.

Mr Anderson has put some flesh on the bones of a plan he first mentioned in a frank exchange with a committee of MPs three weeks ago.

He has called for ten million households to have their energy bills reduced by £1,000 this October.

He said the government’s plan to give each household £200 towards their energy bill – a sum that will need to be paid back – would not be enough.

“We need to be realistic about the gravity of the situation – around 40% of UK households, potentially 10 million homes, could be in fuel poverty this winter,” Mr Anderson explained.

The price cap is set to be increased again in October.

To date, the government has said it will offer extra relief of £150 in April via the council tax system in England, and in October customers in England, Scotland and Wales will receive a £200 rebate on their energy bills.

They will have to repay this at £40 a year for five years, starting in April 2023.

However, Mr Anderson said a £10bn tariff reduction fund could be paid for by adding £40 annually to all household energy bills for the next decade. He said this would be the most effective to avoid fuel poverty for the most vulnerable.

Mr Anderson said that such a fund would directly tackle the biggest cause of the cost of living crisis in a way that other measures – such as the recent 5p cut to fuel duty or a possible cut to the frequency of MOT testing – do not.

Households on pre-payment meters and those in receipt of benefits would be eligible for the discount.

Mr Anderson also said more energy companies could collapse if their customers were unable to pay their bills.

Scottish Power is owned by Spanish firm Iberdrola and Mr Anderson fears that foreign owned energy suppliers – including EDF, Eon and his own – might struggle to persuade their parent companies to continue to subsidise loss-making UK subsidiaries and exit the UK market.

Scottish Power is also concerned that energy companies will sustain further big losses if Ofgem sets the new energy price cap – due to take effect in October – too low.

Wholesale gas prices have fallen sharply since the all time records set in March.

However, many energy companies bought the gas they will supply this winter at prices much higher than current levels.

If Ofgem does not recognise this when it sets the new cap, some firms will have to sell at a significant loss threatening them with further distress or collapse which would further destabilise the market, according to Scottish Power.

“We need to find a way to help to those that need it in time for winter in a way that doesn’t exacerbate the issues we’ve already seen in the industry with supplier failures and very real concerns about billpayers running up unsustainable debts,” Mr Anderson continued.

Energy suppliers concede that further government support would help them as well as their customers.

Meanwhile, government officials privately say that it is hard to distinguish between genuine potential financial distress for the energy companies and intense lobbying.

Ofgem responded that it is “too soon” to predict the level of the price cap from October. However, it said that new measures earlier this year will allow it in “exceptional circumstances”, to update the price cap more frequently than once every six months, to “ensure that the price cap continues to reflect the true cost of supplying energy”.

“This was introduced in the interests of stabilising the market and making sure both consumers and suppliers pay a fair price,” Ofgem added.

The Treasury has said it is monitoring the situation and would review the level of support needed when the level of the new price cap became clear in late summer.

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The goal of levelling up is to provide equal opportunities across the UK.

A news Panorama investigation raises questions about whether money is reaching the most deprived areas in England.

Mr Gove said his department was helping councils to ensure bids are effective.

Levelling up was a key part of the Conservatives’ 2019 election campaign.

The government recently set out its 12 “missions” for the policy – ranging from improving education to faster broadband capability to local transport – with a deadline for delivery in 2030.

“Unless we stick to those missions, then the cost of living issues that we face at the moment will deepen inequality,” said Mr Gove.

Labour’s Lisa Nandy, the Shadow Levelling Up Secretary, said the government should begin by getting inflation under control. “By their own admission, their mismanagement of the economy is going to make levelling up harder,” she told Us.

For the first round of the so-called Levelling Up Fund, £1.7bn has been allocated to towns and cities across the UK.

When Panorama sent freedom-of-information requests to councils in the 100 most deprived areas in England, it found that 28 councils had all their bids rejected. This included 18 areas that were on the government’s top priority list, including Knowsley and Blackpool.

Meanwhile, 38 councils won all, or some, of the money they requested, and 34 councils did not submit a bid in this round.

A second round for the fund will open for applications at the end of May.

Former government economist Nicola Headlam said asking councils to bid against each other was not the right approach. “A beauty contest around who gets the money, that’s not really how I would do it,” she said. She also said that affluent places could have more resources to write better proposals.

Mr Gove said his department was deploying levelling up directors, who live in the relevant areas, to assist with bids.

Data methodology: Data gathered under Freedom of Information requests to lower tier local authorities. We have excluded any bids made at a county council or combined authority level as these had more limited eligibility criteria for the Levelling Up Fund. We used the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2019 ‘rank of average ran’ summary measure. Corby has been excluded due to boundary changes, so we included the 101st-ranked local authority Nuneaton and Bedworth.

The day after his party dropped to third place in Scotland , he said he would “try to do better” and continue fighting against the SNP.

The Moray MP told BBC Scotland he heard “loud and clear” the anger from voters over the Westminster party scandals.

His comments came as parties began to negotiate working together on councils.

Mr Ross told BBC Scotland: “I am absolutely determined to continue as the leader of the Scottish Conservatives because there is a lot of work we have to do to continue to fight the SNP to stop their distraction of national politics onto their obsession about independence and deliver for the people of Scotland.

“I also understand and accept criticism from colleagues. As leader of the party I am someone who hopefully listens when concerns are raised and I there are always issues where I can do better and I will always seek to do that going forward.”

He added: “It’s disappointing and we have lost some great councillors and some outstanding candidates haven’t had the opportunity to serve their area but in parts of Scotland we have made gains.”

Earlier, Conservative MSP, Craig Hoy, told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme that he retained absolute confidence in Douglas Ross.

He said: “I don’t think we should be apportioning blame directly at this stage.

“The results are very disappointing. It was quite clear when I was making calls and on the doorsteps that Scottish voters, particularly Scottish Conservative voters, are very frustrated and quite angry at what they’ve seen coming out of Downing Street over the last five months or so.

“I think they were ready to give us a bit of a bloody nose and that, to some extent, is what happened.”

He added: “I have absolute confidence in Douglas Ross as the Scottish leader. We couldn’t have done any more to put out a positive campaign and message here in Scotland. Unfortunately, the drumbeat of what was going on elsewhere meant we couldn’t get that message over on the doorsteps.”

Losing more than 60 seats and slipping from second to third place in these elections is a significant setback for the Scottish Tories and their leader Douglas Ross.

While he has no intention of quitting, one MSP told me there was now an “undercurrent of unhappiness” with his leadership at Holyrood and that he would have to work hard to overcome that.

The senior MSP Liz Smith has publicly questioned his flip-flop over Boris Johnson’s resignation, telling The Times he has to “explain why he is defending him as prime minister but blaming him for the result”.

Former MSP Adam Tomkins has previously said Douglas Ross must “own the consequences” of backing the PM.

While there’s disquiet, his predecessor Ruth Davidson has pointed out that the result is the second best the Tories have got in Scottish local government for decades and urged the party to “pull together”.

There does not appear to be an organised attempt to topple Douglas Ross. No potential challenger has emerged. As one MSP put it: “if there’s a plot to oust him, no one’s asked me to join”.

Saturday saw the start of negotiations between parties to work together on Scotland’s councils.

Most councils are not in the overall control of one party, and it could take weeks before the full picture of who will run Scotland’s local authorities becomes clear.

The SNP finished as the biggest party, with Labour moving into second after the Conservatives suffered big losses.

Nicola Sturgeon’s party took control in Dundee, while Anas Sarwar’s Labour won a majority in West Dunbartonshire.

The first minister hailed the result as an “incredible outcome” for her party. She met the new SNP councillors in Dundee on Saturday morning.

On council arrangements, she said: “That’s for local council groups to determine what’s in the best interests of the areas they serve, but I’m in a partnership agreement in government in Holyrood with the Greens, so clearly I’d be very open to seeing that replicated in council areas in Scotland.

“But I think it’s important that these decisions are driven locally and that we see parties that are prepared to recognise where they disagree but focus more on where they agree (and) come together to try to put arrangements in place that are in the best interest of the areas they serve.”

Westminster leader Ian Blackford told Good Morning Scotland that the SNP was willing to work with parties with a “progressive” outlook.

He said: “I think that when I use the word progressive there is one party that doesn’t fit that mould and that is the Conservative party. We will be extending the hand of friendship to others where we can work collaboratively and consensually to make sure that we put the interests of the voters and the communities first.”

Scottish Labour said the election marked the start of its recovery.

The party’s health spokeswoman, MSP, Jackie Baillie, told BBC Scotland there would be meetings this weekend on the way forward.

But she said there would be no formal coalitions.

“As the person who chairs this process over the course of this weekend, we will be bringing together councillors, their proposals, alongside the Scottish executive committee of the party to consider wat arrangements work best at a local level,” she said.

“What we have ruled out are formal coalitions but there are a lot of other arrangements that people come to and have been enjoying in the past that make a lot of sense to those local communities. We want to reflect on those and do what is right for the local community.”

Sinn Féin secured the most seats in the assembly election, a first for a nationalist party in Northern Ireland.

Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill is in line to become first minister, if the DUP nominate a deputy first minister.

However Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis has played down the prospect of a border poll being called.

The Northern Ireland secretary said the election results were “significant”, but pointed out that unionists still have more seats than nationalists at the Northern Ireland Assembly.

“So I think the focus at the moment quite rightly is on getting Stormont back up and running,” he told BBC NI’s Sunday Politics programme.

Ms O’Neill, who leads the party at Stormont, said on Saturday that the party will be at Stormont on Monday, ready to form an executive.

She said “other parties” need to be ready to form an executive and that there should be “no excuses” or “time wasting”.

Under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, the decision on when to call a border poll rests with the Northern Ireland secretary.

Sinn Féin’s ultimate goal is for Northern Ireland to leave the UK and become one country with the Republic of Ireland, but that does not mean a border poll is imminent.

When asked what the criteria is for calling such a poll, Mr Lewis did not answer the question directly, but referred to the results of the assembly election.

He said he intends to meet Stormont party leaders on Monday to try to ensure the power-sharing executive resumes.

Northern Ireland has been without a power-sharing executive for several months after the DUP collapsed the institutions as part of its protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol – part of the Brexit deal.

He previously said he would be meeting party leaders over the coming days and would urge them to restore the Stormont institutions, starting with the nomination of an assembly speaker within eight days.

While the office of the first and deputy first minister is an equal one with joint power, the allocation of the titles is regarded as symbolically important.

Although Sinn Féin can now nominate a first minister, they cannot take up the office unless the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) – the biggest party from the unionist bloc – agrees to nominate a deputy first minister.

Its leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has not yet made a decision on whether the party will do that.

On Saturday, Sir Jeffrey said his party would respect the result of the election, however there needed to be changes made to the protocol.

The US State Department called on the parties “to take the necessary steps to re-establish a power-sharing executive”.

“Critical and immediate challenges concerning the economy, health, and education are best addressed through the collective efforts of a devolved government chosen by, and accountable to, its people,” spokesperson Ned Price said.

Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin said it was “incumbent” on all elected representatives to deliver on their mandate through the nomination of a first and deputy first minister.

“A new power-sharing executive is vital for progress and prosperity for all in Northern Ireland,” he added.

A unionist party had always been the largest in the assembly, and previously the Stormont Parliament, since the formation of Northern Ireland in 1921.

For Sinn Féin to be installed in the role of first minister, the majority of unionist assembly members have to agree to form a power-sharing coalition.

In her acceptance speech, Michelle O’Neill said: “The executive needs to be formed immediately. The people cannot wait. People struggling with the cost of living are relying on us to get on with things and do our jobs.

“I have written to all party leaders proposing that we come together on Monday at Stormont and get down to business. Our collective task is to work together to solve the problems facing this society.”

The executive is at the heart of Northern Ireland’s devolved government, made up of ministers nominated to oversee key departments such as health, finance and justice.

For the first time, the Alliance Party has become the third-biggest in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The centre-ground party won 17 seats – up from the eight it won in 2017 – and 13.5% of first preference votes.

The party took a number of seats in the assembly election at the expense of the DUP and Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has said he believes that in some areas his party’s supporters also “lent their votes to Sinn Féin”.

“I think there’s a tide there and people wanted to send a message, they wanted to kick the DUP and I think this is how they decided to do it,” he told BBC News NI.

More than a third of the MLAs elected to the assembly are women.

Thirty-two of the 90 MLAs are female, compared with 27 who were elected in 2017.