UK householders are ditching the Big Six energy suppliers and moving to smaller power firms.

New statistics reveal British Gas, E.ON, EDF Energy, npower, ScottishPower and SSE lost 660,000 customers in total in the last year.

While they remain the dominant players, their duel fuel energy market reduced to 86.6% – a drop from 91% during the same period.

Independent suppliers’ market share however grew from 9% to 13.4% in the last year.

First Utility has seen the biggest growth, with 275,000 new customers joining in the year up to July 2015 and holding 4% share of the dual fuel market.

Robert Buckley, Director, Cornwall Energy said: “This is another summer of significant growth for the independents, with First Utility attracting the most customers to remain the largest independent supplier. The biggest surprise is the independents collectively now hold the fourth largest share of energy accounts in the market – truly breaking the stranglehold of the incumbents.”

Earlier this year the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) revealed Big Six suppliers overcharged customers by around £1.7 billion a year.