Heating Oil Prices: Rural Areas Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Energy Security & Net Zero
Perran Moon
Main Page: Perran Moon (Independent - Camborne and Redruth)Department Debates - View all Perran Moon's debates with the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero
Heating Oil Prices: Rural Areas
Perran Moon Excerpts(2 days, 12 hours ago)
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Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Ind)
It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Mrs Barker. I thank the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone) for securing the debate. In my remote coastal constituency of Camborne, Redruth and Hayle, more than 5,500 homes rely on heating oil as their only source of central heating. In villages such as Kehelland, Mawnan Smith and Port Navas, it is closer to half.
I warmly welcome the two-year kerosene tariff suspension announced in the Budget, alongside the previous Chancellor’s £53 million crisis and resilience fund for low-income households, and plans to strengthen consumer protections and tackle price gouging. For many, heat pumps are an answer, but they are rarely practical or cost-effective for older off-grid remote homes. Fortunately, Cornwall has part of the answer.
As mentioned, residents in Kehelland have been trialling the use of HVO for the past five years. A 20% HVO blend can reduce carbon emissions by up to 90%, while cutting consumption by around 18%, without a costly retrofit for a heat pump. The legislation already exists for a renewable liquid heating fuel obligation, which would enable HVO to be deployed at scale, but we still await the necessary technical consultation. I therefore urge Ministers to examine the Kehelland trial in depth, to reassure themselves that the supply issue they have imagined does not exist, and to set out specifically what further evidence is required, so that HVO can be realised as a low-carbon, efficient option for remote off-grid homes.