Heating Oil Users Face Fuel or Food Choices This Winter
Ministers have promised to regulate the heating oil market and promote competition, but no price cap. Many customers will pay close to double last year, with 500 litres costing over £500. About 1.7 million households are off the gas grid and must buy in bulk rather than spread payments.
The reporting behind this is from Shropshire, where the problem is concentrated rather than unique: roughly 15% of the county’s households use oil, and in South Shropshire 53% are off mains gas, among the highest proportions in the country. Liz Humphris, a retired teacher in Bishop’s Castle who volunteers at a food bank, now orders 500 litres at a time because a full tank costs too much: “For people who are on a very fixed income, it literally is coming down to the point where it is fuel or food, which is awful because you’ve got to heat your home.” The structural problem is the lump sum. As Hanna Clarke of a local charity running a bulk-buy co-operative puts it, “you can’t necessarily put it on a direct debit and spread that cost out across the 12 months”. Corrine Pluchino of Action with Communities in Rural England says the government’s package does not go far enough and wants VAT cut on heating oil immediately, because the real issue is a high and volatile price paid all at once.