By Urgent review ordered as petrol prices reach new highs
Ministers have asked for an urgent review into whether the fuel duty cut is being passed on to drivers after prices hit a record high this weekend.
Motoring groups have called on the government to do more to help drivers, with the RAC stating that a fuel duty cut is “overdue”.
“The speed and scale of the increase is staggering with unleaded going up 7p in a week and diesel by nearly 6p,” the group’s fuel spokesman Simon Williams said.
“This must surely put more pressure on the government to take action to ensure drivers don’t endure a summer of discontent at the pumps.”
The average cost of filling a 55-litre family car with diesel is now £105.01, while the price for a petrol car is £101.77.
The AA said the wholesale price of petrol had been lower than its peak before the Jubilee bank holiday but that wholesale diesel prices are continuing to rise.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will now carry out a “short and focused review” of the fuel market, after Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng asked the watchdog to look at whether the 5p duty cut is being passed on to drivers.
Mr Kwarteng said the review would examine variations between local forecourts and has asked the CMA to report back by 7 July.
The Petrol Retailers Association, which represents independent fuel retailers, said it welcomes “transparency regarding fuel pricing”.
They said its members have passed on the fuel duty cut after it was announced in March, but wholesale fuel prices have continued to rise since then, leaving retailers “operating on extremely tight margins”.
The AA has also backed a further fuel duty cut.
The organisation’s president, Edmund King, told the BBC: “The government is still making 8.74p more in VAT than they were this time last year… so there is money there for another possible duty cut.”
He said retailers should also publish fuel wholesale prices alongside pump prices.
“That does seem to increase competition locally in places where it’s currently done, like Austria and Northern Ireland,” he said.
Mr King added that there were price differences of up to 8p a litre between local garages and supermarkets.
