Centrica and Octopus back plan to freeze UK energy bills for two years

Tariff deficit fund' proposed by ScottishPower and Eon would involve banks putting cash into state-backed fund

Two of the UK's biggest energy suppliers have thrown their weight behind a plan being debated in the industry to devise a fund that could freeze customer bills for two years.

The British Gas owner Centrica and Octopus Energy are understood to support a scheme that would create a multibillion-pound facility to spread the cost of an emergency funding package over a decade, the Guardian can reveal.