Stronger protections for heating oil customers

Major reform planned for heating oil sector to place stronger regulation and better consumer protections at its heart for the first time  

News comes after some suppliers cancelled orders when heating oil prices increased earlier this year, forcing customers to re-order and pay more 

Latest step to put consumers first in the energy market and protect rural households  

Households on heating oil will benefit from better protections under government plans to regulate the market for the first time.  

Stronger consumer protection measures will help make sure families who rely on heating oil are treated fairly, especially when global pressures cause prices to rise.  

The news comes as the government confirms it will accept the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) recommendation to strengthen regulation in the heating oil sector. 

This aims to formalise the standards consumers should expect from their suppliers, protect vulnerable households from harm, and give people clearer routes to compensation when things go wrong. 

It follows the outbreak of conflict in the Middle East earlier this year, when rising oil and gas prices sent the cost of heating oil soaring to record highs for households across Britain.   

The CMA later found that 1,700 households were owed compensation after they were forced to re-order heating oil at higher prices when their orders were cancelled by suppliers. 

The government stepped in with £53 million in immediate support to help vulnerable heating oil customers through the crisis, but Ministers are now determined to make fundamental reforms to the market so that families do not have to worry about getting a fair deal when wholesale prices rise. 

It marks another step to make life’s essentials work for people by putting energy under stronger public control, supporting rural households and bringing back hope to communities.  

Minister for Energy Consumers Polly Billington said: