Dark choice for off-grid families: pay £60,000 or use a torch

When Annette Walton wants to cook on a winter's evening, she attaches a headlamp to guide herself. In a home that lacks constant electric lighting, even simple household chores are impossible without it.

Walton, 53, lives in his home in Kielder Forest , Northumberland, since she was nine. It's one of nearly 2,000 countries that have never been connected to the power grid.

Instead, it relies on a generator, but the skyrocketing cost of red, even low-tax diesel, which costs an average of £1 a litre, means she can only afford to run it for two hours a day. Generators can use around five liters per hour, so keeping the lights on in the winter is an expensive business.

This is a common problem for those who live off the grid. Campaigners say many households asked to be connected but received bills of £60,000 or more from utility companies.

Christine Nicholls of Community Action Northumberland, which supports vulnerable people, says some children wash in streams because it's easier than generating enough electricity to take a shower.

"A person has to refill their diesel generator twice to take a bath. We have children who come home to a dark house and do their homework with headlamps.

There are 350 homes without electricity in Northumberland, and Nicholls has launched a campaign, Powerless People, to help them. Many cannot use washing machines, hair dryers, power showers or freezers because they need more power than their generators can produce.

The 2,000 unconnected homes in England existed before electricity was rolled out. Some are in remote locations where cost precluded them from being connected; others are in national parks where overhead power lines were not permitted; some were blank when the letters were sent offering a connection.

Academic Paul Brassley, co-author of Transforming the Countryside: The Electrification of Rural Britain< /em >, says it was originally up to families to pay for wiring inside the house, which would have deterred some poorer people. "It was mostly for lighting...people didn't have the same electrical needs they have today. In the beginning, profit was an issue. If you put a mile of cable in a city, you're going to maybe pick up 100 customers. In the country, a mile of cable might pick up just one farm."

Anne Hutchinson, 83, lives on a farm near from Stonehaugh in Northumberland National Park. She first inquired about a connection in the 1960s, but even then it was too expensive. In 2000 she asked again and received a quote of 160 £000.

His neighbor Steve Batey has become an expert at servicing his own generator and now runs a business that repairs others." Which is really expensive , it's if you don't have batteries to store your electricity and you have to run the generator every time you need electricity," he says.

He and two neighbors Northern Powergrid gave the families a massive £478,000 joint quote almost 10 years ago because laying power lines would have involved cutting down part of Wark Forest.

Retired Brian Lawrenson applied for Northern Powergrid for a mains connection at his home in Catton, near Hexham. He lives 150 yards from where a 20,000 volt overhead cable terminates at a transformer, and has been offered a quote of £62,000 for an underground connection.

"I don't want to pay about half the value of the house," he said. “I think electricity is a necessity, not a luxury. The power companies should cover it, or the government should put money into it. type="model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement" class="dcr-173mewl">