1.5 million households heat by tanker, at the mercy of the news
There are 1.5 million British households whose warmth arrives by lorry, priced by wars they did not start. When the US-Israel conflict with Iran began in February, heating oil peaked 92% higher than normal. A regulator has now recommended these households receive protections. Recommended. To governments. Note each soft word in that chain.
The case studies write themselves into the ledger of decline. A man pays for 1,000 litres; 500 arrive; the missing half is offered back to him days later for an additional £1,000. He recovers his fuel only by writing to every director of the company — a full campaign, conducted from a kitchen table, to receive what he had already bought.
A woman filled her tank ten days before the war and calls it luck. It was. A week and a half later it would have cost £1,000 more. Family warmth now depends on timing a geopolitical event. Enjoy the current tank while it lasts.
She says the real solution is to stop using oil, and looked into solar, and found there's very little support. Of course there isn't. The protections will arrive, as protections do, one winter after they were needed. Winter, as always, is unbothered — and it bills in litres.