Rishi Sunak pledges people in North will get £600 energy payment ‘this winter’
He was speaking amid speculation that it could be until June before the scheme is fully rolled out.
A £400 payment was initially promised by the UK government for all households to help them to deal with rising prices for gas and electricity.
A further £200 payment was announced last month because of the proportion of homes in the North of Ireland that use home heating oil.
But with the DUP boycotting Stormont stopping a new Executive being formed, it is not known how the British Government is going to get the £600 into people’s pockets who desperately need help with rising fuel and energy bills.
Alliance Party leader Naomi Long said the payments could still be rolling out by next June.
On the second day of his two day visit to the North, the Tory Party leader visited the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, following November’s announcement a consortium including the firm was the preferred bidder for a £1.6bn naval shipbuilding contract.
Speaking after his tour of the shipyard, Mr Sunak moved to quell speculation over the energy support payments.
“Everyone in Northern Ireland is already benefitting from the energy price guarantee, which is worth around £900 in support for a typical family. That is already benefitting families in Northern Ireland over the winter,” he said.
“On top of that everyone in Northern Ireland is going to receive £600. Now that’s more than people in Great Britain are getting and that’s because the Government recognises that far more people on Northern Ireland are reliant on home heating oil that those elsewhere in the United Kingdom.
“We will be making an announcement very soon on how that is going to be delivered, but it will be delivered this winter and I believe it will be made faster than for many of the people in Great Britain, so that is good news.
“We have been working on that, we recognise it’s important to people, it’s a great example of why we need the Executive back up and running.
“These are exactly the type of challenges that we should not have to deal with, because this should be being dealt with by the Executive here.
“But in the absence of that, the Government is focusing on it and an announcement will be made shortly.”
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