Truro and Falmouth MP Sarah Newton has continued to campaign for energy consumers facing rising heating bills this winter.
A large number of people living in Cornwall heat their homes using domestic heating oil or LPG and are not connected to the national grid for their gas supply. As such, it is impossible for these households to receive their gas and electricity from one single energy supplier and therefore benefit from ‘dual fuel’ schemes.
EDF Energy and E.ON are the only two of the ‘Big Six’ energy companies that acknowledge this disparity and offer a discount called the ‘No Mains Gas Discount’. As E.ON and EDF Energy together provide 50 percent of all the electricity in the South West, this means that half of all the 1,385,000 electricity accounts in the region cannot benefit from this discount if they heat their homes using off-grid means.
Responding to this unfairness in the energy market, Sarah Newton wrote to the chief executives of the major energy companies in Cornwall demanding that they introduce deals similar to dual fuel discounts for off-grid customers.
Sarah Newton MP said: “Many people are facing rising costs of heating, particularly over the next few months. The ‘No Mains Gas Discount’ is worth a saving of £8.40 per year with EDF Energy or £19.05 per year with E.ON which are valuable savings.
“One of the ways that energy suppliers could really help is to extend the ‘No Mains Gas Discount’ to those households who cannot receive their gas supply from the grid through no fault of their own. I will continue to make representations to energy companies and my Government colleagues to ensure that consumers get the fairest deal possible.”