"Vulnerable" households who have been hit by a sharp increase in the price of heating oil will get help from a £53m support package, the prime minister has said.
Support will be "targeted" to help low-income households in rural communities, Sir Keir Starmer said, although local councils will decide who qualifies and how the money is distributed.
Unlike consumers who use gas and electricity for heating and hot water, prices for households using oil are not capped by regulator Ofgem.
As a result, these households have been among the first to feel the impact of rising crude prices since the outbreak of the US-Israeli war with Iran and some customers say their costs have doubled.
About 1.5 million UK households use heating oil. The issue of rising prices is particularly acute in Northern Ireland, where about 500,000 homes use it, almost two-thirds of all households.
