Hydrocarbon Oil etc.

Part of Orders of the Day — Finance Bill – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 4 July 1979.

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Photo of Mr David Stoddart Mr David Stoddart , Swindon 12:00, 4 July 1979

My hon. Friends keep raising very relevant points which need to be dealt with. I hope that the Chief Secretary will deal with them. My hon. Friend the Member for Bassetlay (Mr. Ashton) is very much on the ball. From a message which I have received while sitting in my place, I understand that there is an article in a London evening newspaper illustrating the worries that are facing people who have homes with oil-fired central heating, not only because some of them will have to face an increase in oil prices but because they simply cannot get fuel. What is more, the projections of the oil companies show that fuel will be in even shorter supply next winter. As many people who have oil-fired central heating in their homes have only limited storage capacity in their tanks, they may very well have to go cold.

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. In these circumstances, if a person wishes to buy a house but sees that it has oil-fired central heating, and if there is no possibility of converting to gas, he will not buy that house. The house may well be on the market for a very long time, and the owner may be forced into selling it for a much lower price than he had hitherto expected. That could cause grave hardship. It could prevent a person from taking a job elsewhere, for example, or from being able to retire to the area in which he wanted to retire. Therefore, that is another effect of Toryism and the failure of a Tory Government to deal with the things with which they should deal.