More than two hundred homes were left without power following a "high voltage fault".

Residents in the Ditchling and Plumpton areas reported their electricity went off in the early hours of Christmas Day.

While 198 properties had been reconnected by 9am, some 27 homes remained without power as engineers looked to solve the problem.

A spokesman for UK Power Networks said: "Due to a high voltage fault in the Ditchling area, 225 customers lost their power supply at 2.23am (Christmas Day).

"198 customers had their power restored by 5.05am but unfortunately 27 were still without power.

"Our engineers are working hard to fix the problem and install generators to get power to the remaining customers.

"While there is never a good time for a power cut, it's especially unfortunate today and we fully apologise to all those customers affected.

"We're doing everything we can to get their power back as soon as we can."

Following this statement, the spokesman told The Argus at 10.30am that another house had been reconnected to the power supply with the remainder due to be hooked up to generators later on.

The last generator was installed just after noon today, with all customers getting power since then.

The electricity company will now look to permanently repair the fault.