Heating Oil Prices: Rural Areas Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Energy Security & Net Zero
Helen Morgan
Main Page: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)Department Debates - View all Helen Morgan's debates with the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero
Heating Oil Prices: Rural Areas
Helen Morgan Excerpts(3 days, 6 hours ago)
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Jamie Stone
The hon. Member makes a characteristically interesting point, in which there may be some truth.
The price increases because of the war in Iran have led to some households having their bills doubled or even trebled. Age UK has given me some stats, and here are a couple of examples. One 80-year-old man with serious health problems saw the cost of filling his heating oil tank double from £400 in January to £800 in March. Imagine that.
Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)
Last week, a constituent got in touch to say that she had had to make a minimum order of 500 litres of oil at the cost of £560, meaning that she was out of cash for the rest of the month. Does my hon. Friend agree that we need to bring down minimum orders as well as look at issues affecting the price of oil?
Jamie Stone
I could not agree more with my hon. Friend.
Let me give one more example: a couple in their 70s, for whom the increase has been equally alarming. Their bill rose from £300 to £700, despite one of them having suffered a stroke and needing to be kept warm, for obvious health reasons. These are not abstract stats, but real people—vulnerable people who are trying to manage their household budgets, pay the bills and keep their houses warm. I have talked several times in this place about elderly and vulnerable people having to make the invidious decision either to freeze or to switch on the heating and worry about running into debt.