Member's statement: Cost-of-living Crisis
Member's statement by Mr David Honeyford on .
- MLA
- Mr David Honeyford
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 15 September 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Cost-of-living Crisis
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5705512
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I have raised the cost-of-living crisis many times, but, once again, families across Northern Ireland are being absolutely hammered by the cost of energy. This time last September, 500 litres of home heating oil was £270. Today, it is more than £540, which is double. One electricity supplier has announced a 12·6% increase, which will add about £130 to a typical bill. Gas customers are also being hit and face increases of close to 20% from October. How are families here supposed to budget for that? Hard-working families who are already stretched do not have hundreds of pounds sitting waiting for the rises to come, yet they are expected to pay for that. They need help now, and they need price security into the future. The UK Government should look again at temporarily removing VAT on home heating oil, particularly for Northern Ireland, as we are dependent on it for our source of heat. When energy companies are making exceptional profits, and ordinary people are struggling to pay their bills, we should strengthen the windfall tax and make sure that it hits people and their homes. We also need to look to the future, and we need to fix the reason why it keeps happening here. We need to produce more of our own energy here; reduce the costs to the homeowner and business customers; have the ability to store it and use it when we need it; and reduce the absolute reliance on imported oil and gas. We have had years of delay in that transition, but it needs to stop, and we need to see delivery. Every time that there is another international crisis, the public here should not pay the price. People need help now, and we need delivery of that energy system to ensure that such cost increases do not happen in the future.
308 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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