UK Power Networks have announced how much compensation will be available to those who were without power last week.

And as a gesture of goodwill the company will be paying double the statutory amount to eligible customers.

Payments will be made to those without power for 48 hours or more and will start at £54.

Around 13,000 properties are eligible for this amount which is double the usual £27.

For every period of 12 hours after the initial 48 that a property was disconnected an extra £54 will be paid up to a maximum of £270 for the 300 or so homes which were without power for over 96 hours.

Director of customer services Matt Rudling said: “More than 300,000 customers were affected when gale force winds hit the eastern region on Monday night.

“We do understand the difficulties experienced by our customers during this time and while we can never compensate for that we have decided to double the standard payments as a gesture of goodwill.”

The estimated total cost of compensation payments is likely to be around £1,100,000.

All properties who lost power due to the storm were reconnected by Saturday and UK Power Networks will be writing to all those who are eligible to receive compensation.