Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what support he is providing to households in rural and off-gas-grid areas reliant on heating oil as their primary source of heat.

The Chancellor has announced £53m for low-income families, who heat their homes with oil to help tackle surging prices. This funding will be available to the Northern Ireland Executive, Wales, and Scotland. In England, funding will be distributed by local authorities via the Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF), which comes into effect from 1 April.

In addition, the Government has announced the intention to regulate the heating oil sector to introduce new customer protections along-side securing agreement with industry to quickly improve customer experience.

We will work closely with the CMA to understand their findings and develop options to increase consumer protections in this sector.