Reduce elderly heating bills with community oil

While fuel poverty in this country is now reaching alarming proportions, what is often forgotten is that those suffering most actually rely – not on gas – but on oil or LPG for their heating and hot water

Heating a typical two bedroom home with gas costs around £500 a year. To do the same with oil will cost anything between £800 and £1000 – depending on when you buy your oil

If you are one of the 100,000 (mostly older) oil users who have a “top up arrangement” with their supplier and pay a monthly direct debit without negotiating a price for each delivery, the total could be a whopping £1200 a year for a two bedroom house

So if you are one of the 1.5m people in this country relying upon oil or LPG for their heating and hot water, what can you do about this?

Save money on heating by becoming part of a community oil group

• Well, one answer is to be part of a community oil-buying group. By placing an order for 10, 20 or even more people at the same time, you can use your buying power to negotiate a much keener price
• These community oil groups are still in their infancy (an estimated 60,000 people buy their oil in this way) and they do involve a bit of work, but the benefits can be significant.

There are two ways to do this:

1. one person in the group shoulders all the administration

2. the work is done for you in return for an annual administration fee

Option One: Set up and run your own community oil-buying group

•  Establish who, in your local community, might be interested in being part of a buying group. This can be done by:

a. knocking on doors

b. emailing your friends and neighbours

c. putting posters in the local shop, pub or community centre

d. putting a notice in your church magazine… you get the message!

• You might also like to interest local businesses, care homes, the community hall, farms, church and so on. Having a bigger purchaser in your group could add real muscle to your negotiations
• Once the list is set up (and in an ideal world you would put this on a spreadsheet) choose a date for the first buying day and give all your group members plenty of notice to place their order
• You will need to know:

a. how many litres they want

b. what type of oil they use; any delivery instructions (eg: difficult access

c. if they need to leave their tank unlocked and so on)

• Don’t forget to remind everyone that the minimum delivery is 500 litres per household
• One extra piece of information that might be helpful to glean from your contacts is the names of some of the oil suppliers they’ve used before
• Ring round a number of suppliers, explain you have set up a buying group and you are looking to place an order. They will want to know the number of litres and deliveries; you can ask them for their very best price per litre. If there are any very unusual instructions they may need to know, especially if restricted access means they will have to use a smaller vehicle
• Once you have chosen your supplier, they will need a list of names, addresses, delivery instructions and contact telephone numbers (this is where your spreadsheet will come in handy!). Don’t give them the email addresses, as these should be kept private
• The supplier should invoice these people directly, with no need for you to get involved in the finances
• The week after delivery, contact everyone and ask for any problems or concerns. Things CAN go wrong – including missed deliveries, minor spillages or damage and someone will need to deal with this
• At a fixed time in the future agreed with your group, repeat the process. There are websites online where you can check the way that prevailing oil prices are moving and that can affect your decision!

Option 2 – using a membership oil buying service for community groups and individuals

• If you want all those benefits, but are anxious about the admin, a new model of purchasing oil has now been established called SeniorBuyingPower, aimed at reducing oil fuel poverty amongst older people
• This is run through Community Buying unlimited, the UK’s biggest supplier to community groups
• The average savings they provide range between 8 and 15%, depending upon prevailing prices and group size. For those currently on a “top up” arrangement and paying monthly, the savings could be as much as 40%
• With this model you simply need to establish who in your community might be interested in joining a group, provide SeniorBuyingPower with the contact details and they will do the rest in return for an annual membership for each person of £24 a year, discounted to £18 for anyone age 60 and over. Businesses, community groups and farms etc. will pay a higher rate, depending on the savings they can achieve
•  Individuals can also take also take advantage of this by becoming members and having their delivery added onto a local group.

For more details, go to www.seniorbuyingpower.co.uk, or call 01993 224 111