Call for Shropshire households to join community oil buying club

Community Resource, formerly known as Shropshire Rural Communities Charity (RCC), set up its oil buying club in 2011 to reduce the heating costs of those in off-gas areas.

The organisation runs projects and services to support people and communities facing challenges across Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin.

Heating oil prices are impacted by factors including crude oil, distribution and delivery costs and demand, and can fluctuate quite dramatically.

Community Resource’s oil buying club uses bulk buying power to drive the cost of heating oil down as much as possible, passing savings directly onto its members.

Julia Baron, CEO of Community Resource, said: “We established this club because we wanted to make sure people weren’t penalised with high fuel costs simply because they use oil-fired central heating.

“Providing this help to people is more than important than ever as inflation grows and households find themselves paying more for basic goods and services this year.

“We also know that it can be quite time-consuming and confusing to track down the best prices, which is why our service deals with the hassle of contacting suppliers to see which one can offer the best price that month.”

Over 46 per cent of homes in Shropshire aren’t connected to mains gas, while 13.2 per cent of households in the county are in fuel poverty.

Community Resource’s Oil Buying Club also has volunteer co-ordinators across the county who take orders and support vulnerable customers in their area.

Julia added: “Our co-ordinators are on-hand to help people with the process of submitting orders and are invaluable to those who need that extra bit of help with the process.”

Membership to the scheme is £27 per year which covers the running costs. To join, visit www.community-resource.org.uk/oil or contact Community Resource on 01743 342167 / oil@community-resource.org.uk.