Unlike mains gas or electricity, heating oil is completely unprotected by price caps or government interventions, meaning that households feel the full force of price increases straight away, with no buffer or protection.
Homes that use heating oil tend to be in rural areas where wages can be lower and living costs higher. Properties are often older and poorly insulated, meaning that households must use more energy just to stay warm, making it a constant struggle for many families. While the average household paying for mains gas and electricity by direct debit might spend around £150 per month with payments smoothed across the year, off-grid families who rely on heating oil face a very different reality. Typically purchased in bulk and paid for upfront there is usually a minimum order of 500 litres.
The Fuel Bank Oil Tracker confirms the price that the people we help pay for their heating oil. On 27th February customers were paying around £640 for 1k litres of heating oil. By today, prices have soared with the same 1k litres now costing over £1376. In real terms this is an increase of around 115% in just over a week.
With this level of uncertainty and no indication of how long political tensions may last, families cannot plan or budget reliably. Our research shows that off-grid households are more likely to face a critical need for heat, so for households with older, vulnerable people or those with health conditions, empty fuel stores can be life-threatening.
At Fuel Bank we see the human cost of these price shocks every day through the support we provide via our Heat Fund. With heating oil prices, there is no lag between wholesale price changes and what consumers pay, leaving households entirely at the mercy of daily market fluctuations. The consequence is simple: families already living in poverty will be pushed further into fuel crisis. Without urgent action and intervention, the situation will only worsen.
For a long time we have been calling for consumer protection measures for unregulated fuels, alongside additional support for those living in acute fuel poverty. Today, this call is more urgent than ever and we are urging the Government to act immediately.
And although the Warm Homes Plan will help drive an increase in home energy efficiency and provide access to low or no cost zero carbon ways to heat a home, we are seeing some families today who now need urgent help just to keep warm. And we mustn’t lose sight of this.
The rising cost of heating oil is not an abstract statistic or a number on a chart, it’s a daily crisis for off-grid families. Every spike in price and every delay in delivery threatens people’s health, wellbeing, and dignity.
