Starmer announces £53m support package to help with rising heating oil costs
Setting out the measures to ease the cost-of-living pressures, the PM insisted the plan would help UK households currently reliant on heating oil
Sir Keir Starmer has unveiled a £53million support package to help UK residents with the surging costs of heating oil following the blockade on the Strait of Hormuz.
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The Prime Minister's announcement comes after Iran closed the vital shipping lane to tankers and cargo ships as a retaliatory measure following joint US-Israeli airstrikes targeting Iran.
Speaking on Monday, Starmer said the package would help “those households that are most exposed”, after some customers saw their bills nearly double following the start of the conflict.
During the press conference from Downing Street, the PM said he is working with allies on a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, adding the UK was working with European allies on a “viable plan” to ease the crisis, which has driven up global oil prices.
Setting out the measures to ease the cost-of-living pressures, the PM insisted the plan would help UK households currently reliant on heating oil.
Read more: Trump says Nato faces ‘very bad future’ as US calls on allies to help secure Strait of Hormuz
He said: “We’re working with all of our allies, including our European partners, to bring together a viable collective plan that can restore freedom of navigation in the region as quickly as possible and ease the economic impacts.”
The news comes as the Prime Minister resisted Donald Trump’s demands to send Royal Navy warships to help secure the vital shipping route, which allows the flow of oil and gas out of the Middle East.
The shipping restrictions have effectively closed the strait to fuel tankers, causing the price of oil and gas to surge globally.
Raising concerns about widespread claims that suppliers of heating oil have cancelled orders and subsequently hiked bills as prices have spiked, the PM said: “I simply will not allow companies to make huge profits from the hardship of working people".
“That kind of conduct is completely unacceptable, so if the companies have broken the law, there will be legal action.”
England will receive £27 million to support heating oil customers, which will be distributed by local authorities.
Northern Ireland, which has the highest proportion of homes reliant on heating oil of the UK’s four nations, has been allocated £17 million, Scotland £4.6 million and Wales £3.8 million.
The Treasury said the funding has been allocated based on census data, with the money going to the devolved governments to distribute.
It comes as the Prime Minister discussed the issue of rising fuel prices with Mr Trump on Sunday.
The move also forced the International Energy Agency (IEA) to release 400 million barrels of emergency oil reserves in a bid to cover demand and combat any potential price spike.
The release allowed stocks from Asia and Oceania countries to be released immediately, with stocks from Europe and the Americas released at the end of March, the agency said last week.
It comes just four days after the agreement was initially announced, with the US also seen to ease sanctions on Russian oil in a bid to free up supply.
