{"id":1444,"date":"2013-01-18T14:00:27","date_gmt":"2013-01-18T14:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silver-stage.precision.co.uk\/?p=1444"},"modified":"2013-01-18T14:00:27","modified_gmt":"2013-01-18T14:00:27","slug":"1-5m-rural-elderly-facing-struggle-to-heat-homes-as-snow-hits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvermarque.co.uk\/?p=1444","title":{"rendered":"1.5m rural elderly facing struggle to heat homes as snow hits"},"content":{"rendered":"

An estimated 1.5 million older people who live in the countryside are struggling to keep warm because they live in areas off the\u00a0gas grid and can\u2019t afford expensive\u00a0 heating oil,\u00a0 according to the charity Age UK<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In December, the cost of oil in some parts of the UK reached 70p a litre. Official figures show that the average price rose from just over 54p a litre in July 2012 to\u00a0 65 p in December 2012 – representing a 20% increase, or over seven times the annual inflation rate.<\/p>\n

In addition to the sharp price rises, as oil companies will only deliver a minimum of 500 litres of oil, users faced bills of at least \u00a3350 plus VAT \u2013 out of reach of many older people surviving on their pensions.<\/p>\n

The disturbing figure comes as the winter\u2019s latest cold snap has descended on the UK with temperatures plummeting and the prospect of heating oil prices rising again, leaving those who are unable to keep warm at risk of heart attacks, strokes and other cold related illnesses.<\/p>\n

Sales of heating oil are unregulated in the UK, giving consumers no protection against prices which are significantly higher than national grid gas available to people in urban areas. Yet, older people in rural areas are often among the UK\u2019s poorest and tend to live in old badly insulated buildings which require more heating.<\/p>\n

Age UK is calling on competition regulators to monitor the industry and intervene if there is evidence of unfair pricing or poor sales practices to help make heating oil more affordable for those who rely on it.<\/p>\n

It is also calling on the Government to prioritise making \u201coff-grid\u201d homes energy efficient.<\/p>\n

Age UK\u2019s Charity Director General, Michelle Mitchell said,\u00a0 \u201cMany of our poorest and most vulnerable older people live in the country and have little choice but to use heating oil to keep warm.\u00a0 A significant number can\u2019t afford the hundreds of pounds they have to pay up front and simply do without, often, in the coldest months of the year . We know older people are three times more likely to suffer strokes if they do not keep warm. So it\u2019s just common sense that the Government makes sure they can afford to keep warm by ensuring pricing in the industry is fair.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An estimated 1.5 million older people who live in the countryside are struggling to keep warm because they live in areas off the\u00a0gas grid and can\u2019t afford expensive\u00a0 heating oil,\u00a0 according to the charity Age UK. In December, the cost of oil in some parts of the UK reached 70p a litre. Official figures show […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":1447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,36,1],"tags":[403,402,413,410,409,87,415,401,400,258,411,414,406,405,270,407,404,399,412,416,398,408],"class_list":["post-1444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","category-home","category-latest","tag-age-uk","tag-annual-inflation","tag-badly-insulated-buildings","tag-cold-related-illnesses","tag-cold-snap","tag-consumers","tag-energy-efficient","tag-expensive-heating-oil","tag-gas-grid","tag-government","tag-heart-attacks","tag-heating","tag-household-bills","tag-oil-companies","tag-older-people","tag-pensions","tag-sharp-price-rises","tag-snow","tag-strokes","tag-vulnerable","tag-warm","tag-winter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/silvermarque.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/silvermarque.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/silvermarque.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silvermarque.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silvermarque.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1444"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/silvermarque.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1449,"href":"https:\/\/silvermarque.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1444\/revisions\/1449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silvermarque.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/silvermarque.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silvermarque.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silvermarque.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}