Heating Oil Prices: Rural Areas Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Energy Security & Net Zero
John Hayes
Main Page: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)Department Debates - View all John Hayes's debates with the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero
Heating Oil Prices: Rural Areas
John Hayes Excerpts(2 days, 12 hours ago)
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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.
Sir John Hayes (South Holland and The Deepings) (Con)
I am extremely grateful to the hon. Gentleman; he has done a great service in bringing this matter to the Chamber for our consideration. In my constituency, as in his, the vulnerable people are often in isolated communities; I think of Holbeach Hurn, Holbeach St Johns, Gedney and Fleet Hargate. Those people depend on heating oil, and they do not enjoy the same kind of protection that other energy users do. It is as simple as that. The Government need to act.
Jamie Stone
The point is extremely well made.
Being a cheeky chap from the north of Scotland, I thought it would be wise to write to the Chancellor ahead of the Budget to make the case for targeted support for heating oil customers. I am a little disappointed that the measures that were announced did not go quite as far as I had suggested, but—