A power company is offering goodwill payments to those worst affected by Storm Eunice, which caused widespread damage across the region.

According to UK Power Networks, which manages the electricity supply for Suffolk, it has restored supplies to 98% of homes and businesses that were left without power.

They also said this was the biggest storm for more than a decade, in terms of the number of faults on the network.

The weather caused a month’s worth of faults in a day, interrupting power to 679,700 homes and businesses.

UK Power Network CEO Basil Scarsella said: "I appreciate what a difficult time this is, for our many customers who have experienced a power cut caused by Storm Eunice which saw record wind speeds and damage across the South East and East of England.

"While we work hard to get everybody back on supply, we have decided to make goodwill payments to our customers who were worst affected by power cuts caused by Storm Eunice and have been without power for 24 hours.

"We recognise that being without power for this extended period affects your daily life so we have decided to make an extra £50 payment, earlier than payments would normally apply which would be after 48 hours.

"This means that if you were impacted by Storm Eunice you will be eligible to receive £50 after 24 hours without electricity, an additional £70 when you reach 48 hours, and an additional £70 thereafter for every 12 hours without power.

There are currently 1,300 homes without power in Suffolk as a result of Strom Eunice and Storm Franklin.

Engineers from UK Power Network are currently working to fix numerous power cuts across the region after the third storm in under a week.

Ipswich, Bury St Edmunds, Newmarket, Orford, Framlingham, Leiston, Stowmarket and Halesworth are among the towns that have seen hundreds of homes affected by outages.

Mr Scarsella added: "There is no need for you to call us – we’ll contact everyone who is entitled to payment by text message, email or letter in the coming days. If you prefer you can fill in our online claim form.

"I hope you and your families are safe and well. Please rest assured it’s our top priority to get your power back on as quickly as we can."