Calls for new price cap on heating oil as cost of living rises

Often living in rural or isolated locations, it is thought about 1.5m households use oil to heat their homes. Like other forms of energy, the cost of oil has spiralled in recent months. But those who use oil are not protected by the energy price cap. How are they coping?

Eira Featley lives in a three-bedroom council house in Stoke Ash, near Eye, in Suffolk.

The single-mother's kerosene-fuelled boiler runs her central heating and hot water system.

Mrs Featley is also the full-time carer of her son, Steven, 27, who has a terminal liver disease and receives universal credit.

"We have to keep the home fairly warm for Steven because your liver controls your temperature," she said.

Like other heating oil s in England, Mrs Featley has to buy her kerosene in minimum batches of 500 litres (110 gallons).

Each batch, she said, will last three or four months.

Up until October, 500 litres of heating oil cost about £200.

Unlike gas and electricity, households do not to have a contract with any one company and instead buy from whichever supplier can do them the best deal.

In January Mrs Featley sought to top up her tank and was quoted £326 for 500 litres.

She said she would have struggled to pay this amount and sought help from her local Citizens Advice branch, which found a fund to pay for her heating oil.

"It was like winning the lottery," Mrs Featley said. "I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders."

She is hoping the quantity will get her through until May when the weather should be warmer.

"It's going to be really tough," she said. "I'm going to worry about it, and that's causing more stress on what's already a stressed family.

"I might even have to borrow if it stays at the rate that it's at at the moment, because you can't keep asking for money from the Citizens Advice.

"There are other people out there who need it, but if it's £670 in May what am I going to do":[]}