The government has promised heating oil customers better regulation of the sector after prices doubled in a year – but not a price cap.
Around 135,000 homes in Yorkshire rely on kerosene, particularly in North and East Yorkshire where many lack mains gas connections.
Customers were yesterday being offered between £1,176 and £1,181, including VAT, in East Yorkshire, for 1,000 litres. Before the US attack on Iran, the same amount cost between £600 and £700.
The government claimed the move to regulate the industry for the first time, would “help make sure make sure” customers “are treated fairly, especially when global pressures cause prices to rise”.
Ministers said they will protect consumers and promote competition, giving clearer compensation routes if things go wrong. Minimum order levels, set for some customers, will be reviewed.
However there was no mention of introducing a price cap, which campaigners have called for at £1/litre.
One Yorkshire supplier, which buys fuel from Phillips 66 at Immingham, said their hands are tied: “We’d obviously like to be selling it at a sensible price but we can’t when we are being sold it at silly prices ourselves.” Yorkshireman John Horseman is stockpiling firewood in anticipation of a “cold and miserable winter”. He said prices were outside the UK government’s control: “It’s the oil barons who are in charge, people like Trump.”
The government announcement followed a recommendation by the Competition and Markets Authority recommendation to strengthen regulation in the heating oil sector.
The Fuel Distribution Association said the CMA review found “no evidence that the industry materially benefited from the significant price increases” during energy price spikes.
They said “distributors typically have limited storage capacity and purchase product at prevailing wholesale market prices on a frequent basis. As a result, distributors are largely price takers in an internationally traded market.”