{"id":337565,"date":"2026-03-13T17:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T17:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/337565\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T17:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T17:34:10","slug":"households-turning-off-heating-due-to-oil-cost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/337565\/","title":{"rendered":"Households turning off heating due to oil cost"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man with a disabled wife has said he might have to risk turning their boiler off due to the soaring cost of heating oil.<\/p>\n

More than 46,000 homes in Cumbria do not have mains gas and many rely on heating fuels such as oil or LPG.<\/p>\n

But due to the war in Iran, the price of oil has surged and Brian Aves, from Nenthead, said the cost of heating oil had doubled for him.<\/p>\n

Tim Farron, Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, said he wanted to see VAT temporarily removed from heating oil. Keir Starmer said he would not hesitate to act if companies “fleece customers or rip them off<\/a>” with “unfair” heating oil prices.<\/p>\n

Heating oil sits outside the regulatory framework that covers gas and electricity, which means consumers can see prices suddenly rise.<\/p>\n

Aves said: “My wife is disabled, I’m not in the best of health, we just have our state pension and a little private pension coming in, but to find \u00a31,200 to \u00a31,300 for a tank of oil is nigh on impossible.<\/p>\n

“What I have done here in our home is actually reduce the time of the boiler being on.<\/p>\n

“You have to try and save as much oil as possible.”<\/p>\n

\"Dave<\/p>\n

Dave Westren bought heating oil without knowing the price [Robert Cooper\/BBC]<\/p>\n

In Newtown, near Brampton, Dave Westren said he bought some heating oil last week without knowing how much it would cost because of the price being so volatile.<\/p>\n

“When I ordered it they weren’t able to give me a price,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We had to have it anyway so I’m just waiting for the bill.<\/p>\n

“I think the last time we had it it was somewhere around 50p a litre and it’ll probably be nearer 80 this time – we just don’t know.”<\/p>\n

Farron signed an early day motion on Wednesday seeking the cutting of VAT on the oil, which currently stands at 5%.<\/p>\n

“People who are in awful and cold weather like this are having to keep the heating off, that’s dangerous, or indeed face hardship otherwise,” the MP said.<\/p>\n

His motion also sought to bring in a cap “so people who are off the grid [and] on heating oil have the same protections everybody else has”.<\/p>\n

Petrol retailers and energy suppliers are due to meet with Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband later.<\/p>\n

Follow BBC Cumbria on X<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>, Nextdoor<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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