LIZ Truss is expected to reverse England’s three-year moratorium on fracking today, in a bid to increase the UK’s energy security.

Reports this morning suggest the lifting of the ban will take effect almost immediately. 

It will allow the extraction of shale gas but only in communities where there is support for the controversial policy. 

According to the Daily Telegraph, fracking companies would offer householders a 25 per cent reduction in their energy bills as an incentive to locals. 

Ms Truss has also spoken in favour of increasing work in the North Sea and in new nuclear. 

In Scotland, there has been a de-facto ban on fracking since 2017, with councils told not allow planning permission for any developments. It is unlikely that the SNP Green administration in Edinburgh would overturn that. 

Ahead of her announcement today, Ms Truss said: “I know families and businesses across the country are worried about how they are going to make ends meet this autumn and winter.

“Putin’s war in Ukraine and weaponisation of gas supply in Europe is causing global prices to rise – and this has only made clearer that we must boost our long-term energy security and supply.

“We will take action immediately to help people and businesses with bills but also take decisive action to tackle the root cause of these problems so that we are not in this position again.”

Meanwhile, Labour argued that those supporting the return of onshore fracking “misunderstand the situation we find ourselves in.”

Danny Gross, from Friends of the Earth, said fracking was "unnecessary, unpopular, incapable of easing the cost of living crisis and will only add more planet-warming emissions to our atmosphere."