Rural residents using oil tanks to fuel their homes say they are feeling the pinch of the war in Iran. The UK is heavily reliant on oil and gas imports, and prices have surged since the US and Israel began attacking Iran earlier this month. Iran previously warned vessels not to pass through the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, through which about 20% of the world's oil and gas is shipped.
Heating oil is often used in homes across the UK and Ireland that are not connected to the gas grid. ' The global oil price reached nearly $120 (£89) a barrel on Monday, a four-year high, though it has since fallen. There is no cap to limit the cost of heating oil in the way households benefit from regulator Ofgem's price cap on gas and electricity bills.
When prices are very fluctuant, as they are at the moment, that contingency [distributors add to cover cost rises] can be quite significant.
5 million British homes, mostly rural, are not connected to the mains gas grid and rely on oil. The Iran war has led to spikes in oil prices that campaigners say are hitting the wallets of rural communities and homes that rely on external oil tanks for heating. Labour MPs are demanding that the Government release a rural strategy amid concerns the Iran war could disproportionately affect the countryside.
' The specific measures included in the proposed rural strategy have not been detailed, and it is unknown how many rural households have been directly affected by the oil price surge.
You have to always have a contingency fund but we wouldn't have expected it to go up that quickly. It will mean having to make budgetary choices elsewhere and will have a noticeable impact on our finances. We'll have to be mindful that in September we may be looking at having to spend twice as much to fill the tank up because I don't see the prices coming down in a sustained way.