Brits have been urged to take action over a common issue households experience during particularly cold weather. Snow and freezing temperatures were unleashed in parts of Britain over the past few days, with the Met Office recording lows of -11.7C at Loch Glascarnoch on Thursday night.

Cold conditions continue as we head towards the festive period, and many Britons will be cranking up the thermostat to keep their homes toasty in the days ahead. But when the mercury drops below zero, the low temperatures can impact your boiler, and British Gas is urging people to take action if frozen pipes leave them without hot water or heating. The energy and home services firm explains that in these low temperatures pipes that aren't insulated can freeze. Pressure can then build when the ice expands, often cracking the pipe and bringing flooding and leaks after the ice thaws.

British Gas is advising homeowners to act quickly if the early sign that pipes are frozen can be easy to miss. However, thankfully they're often easy to deal with.

Peter Knowles, technical repair engineer at the energy provider, said: "If your heating suddenly cuts out or the taps run dry, don't panic - frozen pipes are common in a cold snap and usually straightforward to fix," as he shared a number of "top tips".

The first step is to find which pipe is frozen, he says. With modern condensing boilers, it will most likely be the condensate pipe that's affected.

"This will be a plastic one that comes out of your boiler - find where it goes outside to see if it's frosted over," the advice reads.

After you've located the problem pipe it will have to be thawed out so water can flow again. To do this, he recommends slowly pouring hot (but never boiling) water over the frozen pipe, before placing a hot water bottle over it to help melt the rest of the ice away.

Once it's thawed you can then reset the boiler. If the frozen pipe was the problem, the appliance should fire up as normal.

However if you suspect the pipe has burst, it's important to switch off the water supply at the stopcock immediately, Mr Knowles warns.

Burst pipes are often shown by a water pressure dropping suddenly, damp patches or water marks on floors and walls.

Once the water supply is switched off, you should then open all the taps to drain the system and keep the supply off until a qualified engineer can assess the damage and repair it.