Heating Oil Prices: Rural Areas Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Energy Security & Net Zero
John Lamont
Main Page: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)Department Debates - View all John Lamont's debates with the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero
Heating Oil Prices: Rural Areas
John Lamont Excerpts(2 days, 13 hours ago)
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Jamie Stone
Thank you very much, Mrs Barker; aren’t these Divisions annoying things?
The hon. Member for West Lancashire (Ashley Dalton) made an extremely fair point in her intervention. I have previously welcomed the Government’s commitment of £53 million, which she mentioned, to help households struggling with soaring heating oil prices. That was a move in the right direction, and I give credit where it is due. The support was well meant, but the trouble is that, balanced against the 1.5 million homes that use heating oil, it is only about £35 per household.
John Lamont (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) (Con)
The hon. Member is making an excellent speech. Thousands of my constituents rely on heating oil. Although the Government are taking VAT off electricity and have announced the removal of standing charges for electricity customers, those things do nothing to help heating oil customers. Does he agree that the Government really need to focus on those customers to ensure that they are getting the help they need?
Jamie Stone
I do agree. Hopefully, a debate of this nature will gradually, through good will on all sides and among all political parties, shift the focus on to the sort of people we are talking about.
There is also concern about the take-up of the schemes and the practical difficulties involved in identifying households. Age UK has highlighted the challenges facing organisations and local authorities in reaching out to people who desperately need the help. Perhaps we could all collectively work with the Government to ensure that steps are taken to support people to get what they desperately need.
Turning to my own party’s specific proposals, we have called for three months of zero-rated VAT on domestic heating oil. I appreciate that a VAT reduction would not necessarily reverse the international price increase that is so bedevilling this issue—it would not solve the underlying problem—but it would provide practical assistance at a time when households are facing exceptionally high bills. To quote somebody more august than me, it would be a “breathing space”. For that reason, I encourage the Government to properly assess the cost and practical implications of a temporary reduction in VAT. We will see what comes of that, but I make that appeal to those on the Government Benches.