Heating Oil Support

Judith Cummins Excerpts

Monday 16th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

Before we come to the statement on heating oil support, I must note my disappointment about briefings to the media before important announcements are brought to this House. It shows a deep discourtesy to this House and its Members and a worrying pattern of behaviour from the Government. As the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee has stated,

“making the most important statements in the first instance to Parliament means doing so before they are made to the media and not at the first available opportunity thereafter”.

The requirement to come to this House is set out in the Government’s own rules, in their ministerial code, and they must do better. Furthermore, a statement of this importance ought to have been made by the Secretary of State, and I am sorry that the Minister has been put in this position.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Martin McCluskey)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I take my responsibilities under the ministerial code very seriously and will make sure that that message is communicated.

With permission, I wish to make a statement on the action we are taking to protect British people from the soaring costs of heating oil due to events in the middle east. It is now more than two weeks since the conflict in the middle east began. My thoughts and the thoughts of the whole House will be with the millions of people affected, including the British citizens in the region and the troops serving there, but just as we saw four years ago when Putin invaded Ukraine, the impact of this conflict is being felt far beyond the battlefield. With Iran continuing to target energy infrastructure and shutting off the strait of Hormuz, the price of crude oil on the international market has rocketed, and I know that the 1.5 million UK households that use heating oil to heat their homes will be understandably concerned. Indeed, some customers have already reported prices doubling or being unable to secure a delivery at all. Let me be clear that this Government will not stand by and let British families suffer. Let me set out the direct action that we are taking today.

First, we will always stand up for the most vulnerable in our society, and I can confirm to Parliament that we are committing over £50 million to help low-income families who use heating oil. We are allocating this funding where the greatest need is, based on census data, and it will go directly to the devolved Governments with the expectation that it will be used to support vulnerable households. We know that this is a particular issue in Northern Ireland, where almost two thirds of homes rely on heating oil, and we have allocated £17 million to support them. We will continue to work closely with the Northern Ireland Executive on all our plans that I will outline in this statement, given the particular circumstances that exist there and the reliance on heating oil.

In England, funding will be distributed by local authorities via the crisis and resilience fund, which comes into effect from 1 April, and £3.8 million will be passed to the Welsh Government and £4.6 million to the Scottish Government to deliver to affected households through existing programmes. I am today calling for the Scottish Government to ensure that this money is passed to Scottish families as quickly as possible.

Secondly, as well as providing direct support for consumers, we are working with the sector to ensure that pricing is always fair, transparent and justified. This Government will not tolerate profiteering or unfair practices, so we are in daily contact with industry to understand the drivers of recent price movements and have reminded heating oil distributors of their commitments under the trade association code of practice. The Chancellor has also written to the Competition and Markets Authority to ask it to remain vigilant across heating oil prices and to tackle unjustified increases, and we urge customers to share any evidence of price manipulation with the CMA.

We also recognise that the heating oil sector is currently under-regulated. Unlike gas and electricity, the heating oil market is not regulated by Ofgem. We are going to put that right by exploring what regulations might be needed to ensure that consumers get a better deal and by exploring new ways to ensure that households are better protected. This will include: securing an agreement with industry on a strengthened code of practice to rapidly provide enhanced protections to customers; introducing stronger consumer protections in the heating oil market, which could cover dispute resolution, a greater variety of repayment options for those facing hardship, greater price transparency and enhanced protections for vulnerable groups such as the elderly; supporting the CMA’s plans to carry out a more comprehensive examination of the UK’s heating oil industry; and exploring the creation of a new ombudsman or the appointment of a regulator such as Ofgem to champion consumers.

Thirdly, this conflict is yet another reminder that we must get off the rollercoaster of global fossil fuel markets as soon as possible and on to the path of clean, secure, affordable energy that this country controls. This is the only way to protect the British people from energy price shocks and ensure that we are no longer buffeted by the headwinds of conflicts that we had no part in starting. Thanks to our mission to make the UK a clean energy superpower, we have already brought in £90 billion of investment in clean energy, but now, in the light of events in the middle east, we have set out a package of measures to help us go even further and faster in pursuit of national energy security.

We will bring forward the next renewables auction, just months after our most successful ever auction secured enough power for the equivalent of 16 million homes. We will make plug-in solar available for the first time in Britain so that families can buy a low-cost panel straight from a supermarket and set it up on their balcony or in their garden. We will speed up the delivery of our £15 billion warm homes plan—the largest home upgrade programme in British history. We will also reform nuclear regulations following the Fingleton review so that we can fast-track new nuclear power stations.

Behind every decision this Government take is a simple principle. Whatever the challenges, we will always support working people; we will always fight their corner. That is why we are directly helping those affected by the spike in heating oil costs; it is why we are cracking down on any suppliers who are cancelling orders or jacking up prices, while working at pace to ensure that the sector is properly regulated; and it is why, despite the opposition from parties on the other side of the Chamber, we are doing everything we can to take back control of our energy, ending our reliance on these unstable global fossil fuel markets and instead bringing in an era of new, clean, home-grown energy that we control in this country—an era of economic growth, new good jobs, unprecedented investment and real energy security. That is how we will ensure that ordinary working British people never pay the price for foreign conflicts and our overdependence on fossil fuels again. I commend this statement to the House.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

I call the shadow Minister.