MP warns of ‘blatant profiteering’ among home heating oil suppliers
Sudden volatility in the global oil trade due to Middle East disruption has caused prices to immediately soar.
Heating oil suppliers are “blatantly profiteering” from the Middle East conflict by doubling their prices for households, an MP has told the competition watchdog.
Gordon and Buchan Conservative MP Harriet Cross has written to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) calling for an investigation as well as to Energy Secretary Ed Miliband to request the Government helps households who cannot afford the sudden price hikes.
Home heating oil is used by about 1.5 million households in the UK, but sudden volatility in the global oil trade due to Middle East disruption has caused prices to immediately soar.
It is estimated 45% of homes in Aberdeenshire, including Gordon and Buchan, are off-grid and rely on heating oil or LPG.
Heating oil customers fall outside of Ofgem’s energy price cap protections, which currently fixes prices until the end of June.
Ms Cross said she had been contacted by several rural residents who had been hit with price increases, rising from £500 for 700 litres of heating oil in January to more than £1,000 since the start of the war, with lengthy delivery times.
She is also calling for a mandatory price transparency scheme to allow consumers to find the cheapest options.
Her letter to the CMA said: “I have been contacted by constituents who have experienced behaviour from suppliers that can only be described as blatant profiteering.
“Families have had existing delivery bookings cancelled, only to be called back the same day and offered delivery of the same oil, to the same address, on the same day, at twice the original price.
“These households are disproportionately rural, often elderly and vulnerable, and I believe there is evidence of long-standing consumer harm which warrants a CMA investigation under section 131 of the Enterprise Act 2002.”
In a separate letter to Mr Miliband, she wrote: “Will the UK Government contact the chief executive of the Competition and Markets Authority to request an investigation into the pricing transparency within the heating oil and LPG market, to facilitate an open and fair competition?”
The CMA warned on Monday it expected consumers who had ordered heating oil to receive it at the agreed price, adding it “won’t hesitate to take action” if it suspects consumer or competition law is being broken.
Earlier on Monday, Mr Miliband and energy minister Michael Shanks wrote to UK and Ireland Fuel Distributors Association chief executive Ken Cronin, telling him the CMA was gathering evidence and looking at whether consumers were being treated fairly.
The letter stated: “We want to strongly remind you of your commitments under the UK and Ireland Fuel Distributors Association customer charter and code of practice, and that the industry remains fully subject to consumer protection and competition law, overseen by the Competition and Markets Authority.”
