Hundreds of homes in the North without power 11 days after Storm Arwen

Soldiers from the Royal Lancers are knocking on doors in Eggleston, County Durham, to gather information after thousands of people were left without power by Storm Arwen

Northern Powergrid said it is working to restore the supply by tonight and prepare for the impact of Storm Barra, which is due to bring strong winds and heavy rain to most of the UK today.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said all of the homes in the North would be reconnected by today “at the latest” after he spoke to the company’s chief executive Phil Jones yesterday.

In a statement, Northern Powergrid said its engineers are working in “ongoing challenging conditions” and have restored power to around 239,500 of the 240,000 customers affected by Storm Arwen, but Storm Barra could "hamper progress".

Many of the properties are in Northumberland and County Durham.

The company added: “The vast majority of remaining repairs are in remote, sparsely populated parts of our region and will reconnect one or two customers at a time.

“Our resource levels remain strong and we have more generators available to deploy, so we are targeting reconnection of the remaining customers by late tomorrow night.

“The remote locations our teams are working in means that Storm Barra could hamper progress. It is not forecast to be as severe as Storm Arwen, but it might limit our ability to work safely.

Protecting children from grooming will 'really break' county lines drug gangs

“The storm is expected to land on Tuesday (7 December), bringing snow and strong winds across much of the UK. In preparation, we have elevated our alert status. This involves monitoring the storm’s progress and putting our first responders on stand-by, ready to respond as necessary.

“We will keep tracking the approaching the storm and move to the next level as necessary. We will keep you informed when and if we move to a higher state of alert.

“We know that it has been very difficult for people to have to be without power for such a long time. We assure you that we will do everything we can to reconnect our customers' supplies as soon as possible.”

MPs criticised the company earlier this week for failing to swiftly restore the power for thousands of homes.

Energy minister Greg Hands said it was “completely unacceptable” that around 1,600 households in the North were left without electricity for 10 days.

Labour’s Kevan Jones said: “There is something seriously wrong with Northern Powergrid, not with the engineers and individuals who are out restoring power, but with the management and senior management of that company.”