Two North Yorkshire MPs are pushing the Government to find a way to help rural communities who rely on oil to heat their homes
Prices are shooting up as a result of the war in the Middle East
Both Labour’s Selby MP, Keir Mather, and Ripon’s Conservative MP, Julian Smith have raised the issue with the cost of filling up the home heating tank reported to be doubling and it’s expected that there will rises more to come.
Keir Mather says: “Lots of people have been in touch to express their concern about the huge spike we’ve seen in the price of heating oil after the events of this week.
“There are around 8500 homes off the gas grid in our constituency and many of them rely on heating oil. I’ve written to the Energy Department on behalf of local people to ask what the government can do to help.”
Julian Sturdy told the Secretary of State for Energy Ed Milliband that people need help. This was their exchange in the House of Commons:
Julian Smith MP: “For areas like mine in North Yorkshire, off grid gas and oil customers do not have the same protection as many other energy customers, and could he and his team also focus or have regard for those customers as this crisis evolves”
Ed Miliband: “People who are using heating oil are exposed to what is happening in the market now, obviously it depends when they are restocking their heating oil, and as I’ve said a number of times, depends on how long the crisis goes on. But I think he’s right to raise that point as a particular area that we need to look at.”
