Government must work harder to help off-grid homes

Helen Morgan has urged the Government to work harder to speed up support to families in off-grid homes as cold temperatures strike Shropshire again.

Families in off-grid homes are still yet to receive any Government support with their heating bills, including more than 20,000 households in Shropshire who do not have a mains gas supply and rely on oil to keep their home warm.

Helen, the Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire, has repeatedly called on the Government to introduce a price cap on heating oil and LPG but instead the Government is offering just £200 via the Alternative Fuel Payment scheme.

This scheme was announced months ago but is still yet to be rolled out by the Government, which has faced criticism from MPs of all parties over its slow response to helping off-grid homes.

Meanwhile many people, such as care home and park home residents, are also still waiting for help paying their electricity bills due to not having a direct relationship with their supplier and thus not benefiting from the price cap.

They are due to get a £400 discount on their fuel bills but like payments for heating oil and LPG this is still yet to be rolled out.

As well as concerns over the size and speed of support, there are fears that vulnerable people may have difficulties accessing the money once it is eventually made available.

Those who get electricity directly from a supplier should automatically receive support payments via a discounted bill, but others will have to register online.

Helen is concerned for the many vulnerable and elderly residents in Shropshire, as well as for those without an internet connection, and raised this point with Business Secretary Grant Shapps in the House of Commons on Tuesday (see notes below).

Speaking afterwards, Helen Morgan said: “We’re midway through January, temperatures are below freezing and the Government still hasn’t sorted out payments to families in off-grid homes. It’s not good enough and ministers must work harder.

“Rural areas are always the last to get the help they deserve under the Conservatives.

“Once the scheme is belatedly rolled out, it’s really important the Government makes sure that everybody who is eligible is able to access the money as soon as possible regardless of their age or broadband speeds.”

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Notes

• Alternative fuel payments (for heating oil, LPG etc) and alternative funding for the Energy Bills Support Scheme (for park home, houseboat residents etc) were due to be provided from January but are still yet to be rolled out. More here.
• Around 18% of homes in North Shropshire use oil central heating, compared to just 3% nationally and around 15% in wider Shropshire.
• In some areas, like Trefonen and Pant, more than half of households (52%) rely on oil to heat their homes.
• In Shropshire, 20,902 households rely on oil to heat their home and 4,554 households rely on tank or bottled gas. 1,982 homes have no central heating. Full census data can be downloaded here.
• Full ONS information on how homes are heated in each area is available here.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire Helen Morgan said:

“The alternative fuel payment scheme is being applied to people's electricity bills where they have their own direct supply. But for people in park homes or on houseboats without their own electricity supply this support is difficult to access, and they quite often are the types of people that struggle to get online as well.

“So I wonder if the Secretary of State would consider a better public information campaign for those households and also support with access to applying for the scheme for those that struggle to get online.”

Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, responded:

“The Honourable Lady points out one of these edge cases with park homes. A lot of members will have park homes in their constituency, including my own, and the issue there has been more complex to get the money to them. She'll be pleased to hear that the pilot schemes actually launched yesterday to get that money out to them. It will be a process through the local authority and we're making sure it's expedited as much as possible.”