Household Bills
Cross-party working group fights for fairer fuel
The fuel industry is increasing its profit margins at the expense of consumers, argues a cross-bench group of MPs
It called for an independent fuel price watchdog. The new watchdog – Pumpwatch – would monitor petrol prices, giving petrol stations charging fair prices a kitemark.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Fair Fuel was established following a 14,000-strong petition organised by pressure group FairFuel UK.
FairFuel argues that UK fuel duty is among the highest in the world, and UK drivers are subject to opportunistic profiteering at the pumps.
The APPG said petrol retailers’ average profit rose from 8p a litre in the first nine months of 2018 to over 13p a litre by the end of the year.
Howard Cox, FairFuelUK founder and secretary to the APPG said: “If gas, electricity, water and telecoms get price protection bodies, why shouldn’t motorists have one too? We need ‘PumpWatch’ now, to ensure pricing fairness for both consumers and hardworking fuel retailers too.
“Most of the profiteering is at wholesale level not by small independent retailers, who are also victims of the greedy fuel supply chain.”
The industry rejected the plan for a price watchdog as impractical.
