HEATING oil companies are facing mounting pressure to pass on the fall in global crude prices to consumers who heat their homes with oil.
It is estimated 1.5 million consumers, often in remote areas of Scotland, heat their homes in this way.
Crude oil prices have fallen by almost a third already this year.
Tomorrow, representatives from the heating oil industry will meet ministers at the Treasury to discuss ways of following the lead taken by petrol stations, which have lowered their prices as the cost of oil on the world markets has slumped.
The move from the Coalition was announced by Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
The Highland MP explained that since the fall in global oil prices he had been trying to ensure the decrease was passed on to consumers at the petrol pumps.
"But there are other areas where that fall in the oil price needs to be passed on," he stressed.
"There are around 1.5 million homes in this country that are heated using heating oil. It's more expensive than electric heating. Those households tend to be in fuel poverty and the market is less transparent.
"I will be holding a round table with that industry in the Treasury on Thursday to get that message across to those organisations that they need to be passing on the fall in oil prices just as filling stations do."
Meantime, the Chief Secretary echoed the red light warnings issued by David Cameron and George Osborne about the potential impact of an economic slowdown in Europe and Asia on Britain's recovery.
Noting how "storm clouds were gathering" globally, he told journalists there "certainly won't be any unfunded giveaways" in next month's Autumn Statement by the Chancellor.
He hit out at his Conservative colleagues, accusing them of a "grand deception" in claiming they could balance the books in the next parliament without raising taxes. The Lib Dem Minister said the Tory leadership's plan to pay off the deficit was "simply not credible" and "eye-wateringly unfair".
He claimed the Coalition had been a "partnership of equals", which had delivered Britain's economic success and that, because the Lib Dem record in this had been so good, he predicted his party would do "a great deal better" in the general election than most pundits expected.
With the election just six months away, the Scot sought to draw clear dividing lines with both the Conservatives and Labour, saying that, unlike the Tories, the Lib Dems would seek to raise taxes on "those with the broadest shoulders".
He explained: "A political class that rushes to proclaim what it will spend and how it will cut taxes without saying how it will be funded, when there are £30-odd billion of savings that need to be found, are attempting a grand deception."
Mr Alexander said if the parties did "not collectively level with people over the next six months" then the already-damaged political system would become even more tarnished.
He added: "The burden has to be fairly shared across society and that has to mean that those with the broadest shoulders pay a little extra tax. Pretending that the job can be finished by spending cuts alone is as bad as pretending that the problem doesn't exist at all."
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