Why some have no choice but to pay costly oil prices

A large red and blue truck parked up delivering domestic heating oil through a red pipe, seen at the front of the shot.

Image caption,

Many heating oil customers are having to buy early in preparation for the colder months

ByMarie Lennon, Political reporter, Wiltshire and Edward Rowe, Political reporter, Gloucestershire

Published5 minutes ago

As the temperature drops, some of us will start putting the heating on but for the one-and-a-half million people across the UK that are not on the mains gas network - and who are relying instead on heating oil - that decision may give them pause.

The vast majority of those people live in rural locations.

The heating oil market is unregulated, unlike gas and electricity, so any changes in the global price quickly gets passed on to customers.

Tensions in the Middle East and the ongoing war in Ukraine are two issues currently both affecting supply which is causing prices to rise.

How much is heating oil?

Peter Mason lives in Minety, in north Wiltshire, where most homes rely on heating oil.

"I'm getting toward the end of the tank and need to top up for winter... it will be over £550," he said.

Mason said that last year "it was about £300 to fill up - it is horrendous".

He said: "The price goes up and down. It can vary plus or minus £50 but it has never been as high as it is today.

"It means I'll have to eek out what I spent my money on. I'm retired, its not like I can change jobs.

"I have to be really careful and pull money out of savings."

A large green plastic tank with a tap, housed in a garden.

Image caption,

Most tanks hold 500 litres of oil and would cost about £550 to fill currently

Dylan Williams owns van-driving business Van & I of Monmouth, Wales and regularly operates in the Forest of Dean, Stroud and South Gloucestershire.

The 51-year-old said he was currently paying more for fuel than he ever had in the three years of running his business.

He said he had had to put the prices of his services up to offset the rise.

At the start of the year he would pay between £120 and £130 for a full tank, he said, but that had now gone up to £160.

"It's ever increasing, ever worrying - keeping an eye on the news, keeping an eye on the diesel prices," he said.

"I mean I've got fuel cards... you don't pay the pump prices, you pay the fuel card prices but it doesn't make much a difference these days.

"It's a few pence really."

Two middle-aged people are pictured smiling in some kind of shop/office setting. The man is balding and has a white beard. He is wearing a white polo shirt under a light grey hoodie. The woman has long blonde hair and is wearing a dark purple tunic with a white T-shirt underneath and a bright pink cardigan over.

Image caption,

Tristan Holland (pictured with Mel Holland) runs a small team of community care workers

Yvette Farrell, volunteer director for Dean Forest Kitchen, which cook fresh meals every day and delivers them to clients within the Forest of Dean, said they might have to increase prices as there's "not going to be much choice in the future".

She said: "It's impacted us a lot because we work on a not-for-profit scenario so there is not a lot of wiggle room when it comes to increase in any expenses.

"So the cost of fuel is really, really hitting the business hard and we're having to do our best to still keep going to our clients who are spread across a very rural area with no public transport.

"But we have to take these meals to them because... they will not have somebody coming to see them during the day because they're so isolated."

Tristan Holland, company director at TLC Support Service, manages a small team of community care workers who travel around Wotton-under-Edge and Dursley.

Staff use their own vehicles and the company pays mileage at 55p per business mile.

He said: "We had an increase in our fees back at the start of the year, just kind of taking into account all the extras that were coming in this year but even that does make it tight.

"Everything has risen - the cost of the fuel, the training, even the uniforms that we purchased.

"Everything has gone up and so we try to keep our services as affordable as we possibly can but there has to be a profit or else we just can't carry on going."

Will prices come down?

The Iran war has disrupted the production and transportation of wholesale oil and prices can rise or fall based on the words and actions of key political figures.

It is thought prices could come down if there is a peace deal between the US and Iran.

For people who rely on heating oil, it means feeling helpless.

Richard Willan, who runs the Nadder Oil Buying Club in Wiltshire where more than 1,000 residents buy in bulk together to get a better price, said rural residents were increasingly vulnerable as the colder months set in.

"We are watching to see what happens with (Donald) Trump in the mid-term elections in America, that might change things again," he said.

The Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) said heating oil customers in remote areas were too vulnerable to price shocks.

CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell said: "Stronger safeguards are needed - including regulatory oversight and better support for vulnerable consumers as well as communities living in areas of the UK that are particularly exposed to higher and more volatile prices."

What help is available?

As prices sit above 100ppl with the temperature falling, there are calls for more support for rural communities.

Chief Executive of Action in Rural Communities England Corinne Pluchino said: "Without specific targeted support for heating oil and LPG users, thousands of rural people risk becoming the forgotten victims of the energy crisis."

The organisation is asking the government to remove VAT on heating oil and LPG for six months in this month's budget.

There are also locally-run support schemes like the Surviving Winter campaign run by a group of charities in Wiltshire which supported more than 3,000 people last year with the cost of heating.

A spokesperson for the Department for the Environment and Net Zero said: "We are helping thousands of households on heating oil switch to clean heat with grants worth £9,000, alongside a dedicated resilience fund for areas with higher rates of oil heating.

"We urge eligible households to apply."