Energy bills could be forced up by another £800 and homes rendered “unsellable” by the Scottish Government’s controversial plan to force home owners to rip out their gas boilers, an official consultation on the scheme has warned.

An analysis of responses on the new Heat in Buildings strategy, unveiled by the SNP-Green coalition government last week, cited warnings that moving to “net zero” could add between £200 and £800 per year to utility bills.

With the majority of homes reliant on gas, it said that the mass deployment of zero-emissions heating systems “could result in considerable fuel cost increases”, tipping thousands of people into fuel poverty.

The analysis highlighted the financial burden on households, and particularly the elderly, of having to pay thousands of pounds to replace their gas boilers with low-emissions systems such as heat pumps.