FairFuelUK has called on the government to cut fuel duty immediately, saying diesel pump prices have passed £2 a litre and that running a diesel car now costs 20p per mile.
The campaign group said the pump price was the highest ever recorded. It put the cost of filling a family car at £110 and the annual fuel bill for a typical motorist at £2,020. It did not set out how the figures were calculated.
Official figures put the UK average slightly lower. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s weekly road fuel prices show diesel averaged 199.52p a litre in the week beginning 5 October, up from 182.45p in the week beginning 17 August.
That is the highest weekly figure in the department’s data from 2018 onwards, above the 199.22p recorded in July 2022. Fuel duty on diesel stands at 52.95p a litre, the same data show.
FairFuelUK, which in August urged ministers to scrap the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars, also said that what it described as the recently announced Putin-Trump diesel arrangement would do nothing to ease UK pump prices.
The group said the volumes involved were too small to influence global supply and that the arrangement might increase volatility, because Britain remains heavily dependent on diesel imported from the US. It gave no figures for the volumes or for UK imports.
Howard Cox, founder of FairFuelUK, said: “Diesel drivers are being financially mugged. Prices have smashed through £2 a litre, filling up a family car now costs £110, and the cost of simply driving a diesel has rocketed to 20p per mile, £2,020 a year for a typical motorist. Millions who rely on their vehicles to work, earn and live are being bled dry.”
He added: “The Putin-Trump diesel deal is political theatre, it won’t cut UK pump prices and may actually make things worse. The tiny volumes being talked about won’t touch the sides of the global diesel shortage that’s already hammering British motorists. And because Britain relies heavily on US diesel imports, any shift in American supply leaves our drivers exposed and paying even more.”
Six demands to ministers
Cox said: “Instead of helping drivers through this global crisis, politicians are sitting on their hands while households, hauliers, tradespeople and farmers are crushed by soaring costs. This is a perfect storm created by political games abroad and complacency at home. FairFuelUK demands immediate action: stabilise diesel supply, cut Fuel Duty, and stop treating Britain’s motorists as cash cows to cover up policy failures.”
FairFuelUK set out six demands. Alongside an immediate cut in fuel duty, it wants the government to guarantee stable diesel supply routes and provide transparency on import flows.
It also called for PumpWatch to be made to work “to stop opportunistic profiteering”, and for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to be made to investigate “the fuel supply chain’s honesty”.
The CMA already monitors the sector. Its enhanced road fuel monitoring report, published on 18 August, assessed the impact of the conflict in the Middle East on UK fuel prices and retailer margins in May and June.
The remaining demands are support for the UK’s logistics, trades and farming sectors during what the group called global fuel disruption, and recognition of diesel drivers as “essential to the UK economy, not revenue targets”.
Comparison site The Van Insurer reported in April that UK Google searches for electric vans rose 143 per cent in March, which its commercial director, Ed Bevis, linked to the pressure on diesel van drivers.
