NEWS

Thursday 08 October 2026 Drivers in Northern Ireland will be able to compare petrol and diesel prices on Google Maps from today, with the government estimating that shopping around could save households with a car around £40 a year. Near real-time pump prices are being added to the app across the UK on Thursday 8 October, making it easier to check nearby forecourts before filling up. The feature uses Fuel Finder data, which the government says now covers around 99% of all fue

Sunday 27 September 2026 Almost half of Northern Ireland households have never switched electricity supplier, despite a sharp rise in consumers shopping around for a new provider and more than 112,000 domestic customers changing supplier during 2025. New figures from the Utility Regulator show 404,004 domestic electricity customers — 47% of the market — had never moved from the incumbent supplier by the end of last year, although that proportion has fallen from 49% in 2024. T

Carla Lockhart MP Sunday 27 September 2026 Prime Minister Andy Burnham is facing renewed pressure to revisit controversial inheritance tax changes affecting family farms, with DUP Agriculture spokesperson Carla Lockhart welcoming reports that the policy could be reconsidered ahead of the autumn Budget. The Upper Bann MP said any move by the new Prime Minister to change the reforms introduced under his predecessor Sir Keir Starmer would be welcomed by farming families, includi

Saturday 26 September 2026 The Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) is urging the Chancellor to pause plans to apply a new carbon charge to imported fertiliser, warning that higher costs could ultimately fall on farmers and make domestic food production more expensive. The UK Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is due to take effect from 1 January 2027 and will put a carbon price on certain imported goods, including fertiliser. The UFU wants the measure suspended for fertiliser

MLAs would receive a £2,016 increase in their basic annual salary after next year’s Assembly election under proposals now open for public consultation. The Independent Remuneration Board has proposed raising basic pay from £67,200 to £69,216 for the start of the 2027–32 Assembly term, followed by annual increases linked to Northern Ireland earnings growth and capped at 3%. Members of the public have until 15 October to give their views before the independent body responsible

Thursday 17 September 2026 Around 860,000 households across Northern Ireland will receive £63 off their electricity costs from 6 October, with support applied automatically to bill-paying and keypad customers. The Household Electricity Discount Scheme is not means-tested and the amount does not depend on how much electricity a household uses. No application is needed. For pre-pay and keypad customers, there is an important detail: anyone wanting the full £63 credit in one go

One in four Northern Ireland shoppers had already started buying for Christmas by the middle of August, almost double the UK average, as households look to spread the cost of the festive season. New research from PwC shows Northern Ireland is leading the UK for early Christmas shopping, but the head start comes against a much tougher financial backdrop, with only three in ten local adults describing their household finances as “healthy”. The findings suggest many shoppers are

Hundreds of heating oil customers are set to receive compensation after suppliers cancelled orders as prices surged following the outbreak of conflict in the Middle East. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) intervened amid concerns that some cancellations may have breached customers’ contracts, leaving households facing substantially higher costs to secure replacement fuel — or, in some cases, going without heating oil altogether. Around 800 affected customers have al

Inset: North Antrim DUP MLA Paul Frew Home care workers across the Northern Health and Social Care Trust are set to have average overtime earnings included when their holiday pay is calculated, with retrospective payments also expected to be made before the end of the year. North Antrim MLA Paul Frew has welcomed the commitment after raising concerns with the Northern Trust on behalf of constituents who said they were losing out because of the way their holiday pay was calcul

Northern Ireland’s lowest-earning households are being left with an average of just £53.17 a week after taxes and basic household spending, new research has revealed. The latest Northern Ireland Household Expenditure Tracker from the Consumer Council shows some improvement in household finances at the beginning of 2026 — but spending power remains dramatically below where it was five years ago. For the lowest-income quarter of households, discretionary income has fallen by 35

Tesco has been urged to include Northern Ireland customers in future fuel promotions after shoppers here were excluded from a 5% offer available across Great Britain. Ulster Unionist Party leader and North Antrim MLA Jon Burrows has written directly to Tesco’s Chief Executive over the issue, arguing that customers in Northern Ireland should not be left at a disadvantage when major UK retailers launch promotions. The intervention follows an earlier complaint which resulted in

A typical Share Energy customer will face an extra £129 a year in electricity costs after the supplier confirmed a 12.6% increase in its standard 24-hour tariff from 1 October 2026. The estimated annual increase applies to both credit and prepayment customers. The Consumer Council described the rise as “very unwelcome news” for around 41,000 Share Energy consumers. Customers struggling to pay their bills or top up their meters are being urged to contact their supplier for hel

A victim has lost £250,000 after criminals used an apparently AI-generated video featuring a well-known financial personality to promote a fraudulent investment opportunity. Police said the sophisticated fraud began with a relatively small investment but escalated after the victim was contacted through WhatsApp and persuaded to transfer increasingly large sums. The victim, from the Ards and North Down area, was encouraged to create several online accounts and allowed the frau

Households using Firmus Energy gas in parts of the Ballymena area are facing another increase in their energy costs this autumn, with the regulated tariff set to rise by 8.98% from 1 October. The increase will add around £87 a year to the gas bill of a typical household customer and comes only three months after Firmus Energy’s regulated Ten Towns tariff increased by 15.7% in July. For a typical customer, the latest change will take the estimated annual gas bill to around £1,

Raymond Gormley, Consumer Council for Northern Ireland, Fiona Magee, Advice NI, Communities Minister Gordon Lyons, Nicole Lappin, Chair NIHE and David Blevings, Northern Ireland Oil Federation Around 340,000 households across Northern Ireland could be eligible for a new £100 payment towards the cost of home heating oil, with applications opening next month. The Home Heating Oil Support Scheme will open on Wednesday 9 September 2026, Communities Minister Gordon Lyons has confi

Households across Northern Ireland are expected to receive more than £50 off their electricity bills this autumn, under plans to combine two cost-of-living measures into a single discount. Economy Minister Dr Caoimhe Archibald has confirmed her department is working to finalise an agreement with the Treasury that would increase the support from the approximately £30 previously announced under the NIRO Domestic Electricity Discount Scheme. However, the original discount had be

Waiting on the chinook for extraction… Alan Barr serving with the Intelligence Corps in Afghanistan Tuesday, 4 August 2026 Military veterans, armed forces personnel, and frontline emergency service workers across Mid and East Antrim will now be able to access discounted memberships at the borough’s leisure centres under a new council scheme aimed at recognising their service. Eligible veterans as well as those currently serving, PSNI officers and staff, Northern Ireland Fire

Inset: UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham Households in Northern Ireland are set to receive financial support with electricity costs this winter after the UK Government announced plans to remove VAT from domestic electricity bills across Great Britain from 1 October. Because of post-Brexit VAT arrangements, the tax change cannot automatically apply in Northern Ireland, meaning the Northern Ireland Executive will instead receive comparable funding to ensure local households benefi

Millions of people using Buy Now, Pay Later services such as Klarna, PayPal and Clearpay are covered by new consumer protection rules from today (Wednesday 15 July), bringing the products into line with other forms of regulated credit for the first time. The changes mean shoppers will benefit from stronger legal rights if something goes wrong with a purchase, while lenders must now carry out affordability checks before offering Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) credit. The reforms af

Households across Northern Ireland who rely on home heating oil could benefit from stronger consumer protections after the UK’s competition watchdog called for new regulations to better safeguard customers during periods of price volatility. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has recommended that the UK Government and Northern Ireland Executive introduce a new regulatory framework for the heating oil sector, arguing that the current system leaves around 1.5 million U