Domestic Heating Oil

Lord Beamish Excerpts

Wednesday 9th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Pat Glass (North West Durham) (Lab)]

Mine is a large constituency. I have urban areas to the north-east and a very large rural area running right up to the Cumbrian border. It includes two areas of outstanding natural beauty and many areas of special scientific interest. Very many of my constituents are “off gas” and rely on heating oil and bottled gas, and some of these would be classified as the rural poor or living in fuel poverty.

I have been made aware in recent months that there are issues in the domestic oil fuel market—rising prices and a lack of regulation and competition—but it has become clear from the level of constituency contact and from the level of desperation expressed that a crisis has been building up since summer last year.

[Mr Kevan Jones (North Durham) (Lab)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that in a constituency such as mine, which is a rural constituency next door to hers, many people do not have a choice about whether to use oil, because there is no access to gas or another alternative fuel?

[Pat Glass]

I agree, and that is true in many constituencies.

When I contacted the office of the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change on this issue in early December, I was told that it did not believe that there was a problem and that it did not intend to do anything about it. This contrasts sharply with the experience of my constituents. Mr Kimber, who contacted me on 6 December, told me that the price of heating oil back in early October was 44p a litre. He said:

“Yesterday I obtained a quote online and was shocked to see the price had risen to 65 pence per litre. Today I obtained another quote from the same company and the price has gone up to 79 pence a litre today. How can this be now that the roads are free of snow and passable in nearly all areas locally?”