How a tank of petrol costs £17 extra if you live in wrong town
DRIVERS are facing the most extreme ‘postcode lottery’ at the pumps for years with a difference of up to £17 in the cost of a tank of petrol.
An investigation has found huge contrasts nationwide – sometimes between petrol stations in neighbouring towns and villages.
The difference is often most pronounced between busy towns and more remote parts of the country, where the cost of transporting fuel is typically higher and there is less competition. But the AA said the petrol ‘ postcode lottery’ has reached a scale it has never seen before and suggested some retailers in more affluent areas may be charging more because they believe drivers ‘can afford to take the hit’.
The most expensive area for unleaded in the UK is Markfield in Leicestershire, where the average price across local retailers is 134.9p per litre, according to analysis by petrolprices.com.
The cheapest area – at just 112.8p – is the town of Leigh in Greater Manchester.
In terms of individual forecourts, the cheapest price in the country is 108.9p per litre in Taunton, Somerset.
Petrolprices.com says it is unable to ‘name and shame’ individual fuel retailers but this compares to 139.9 at Gretna, in Dumfries and Galloway. The 31p difference equates to an extra £17.05 to fill up a typical 55-litre family car. And drivers can fill up on diesel for as little as 112.9p in Edinburgh, compared with a top rate of 141.9p – again in Gretna. This adds up to a difference of £15.95 for a tankful.
The gulf in prices is particularly baffling for drivers when they are situated just a few miles away from each other, or owned by the same company.
Separate analysis for the Mail by the AA has found a 9p difference between the price Sainsbury’s charges at forecourts in Hampshire, compared to those in Lincoln and Sheffield. Drivers will have to pay 122.9p per litre of unleaded in Liphook, Hampshire, but only 113.9p at the sites in the North.
Oil company-branded forecourts – whether owned by independent retailers or the oil firms themselves – are typically more expensive than the supermarkets, which often offer cheaper petrol to pull in shoppers. Supermarkets are also able to put a petrol station on land they own already, keeping costs down.
One BP petrol station on the M25 near Westerham charges 122.9p per litre, while just one and a half miles along the same motorway another BP forecourt charges 137.9p.
The average price at the pumps is currently at a threeyear high of 120.73 for unleaded and 123.39 for diesel.
Luke Bosdet from the AA said: ‘The pump price lottery is at a scale I have never seen before. Perhaps Sainsbury’s thinks the good folk of Liphook and other places in the South are well-heeled drivers who can afford to take the hit.’
A BP spokesman said it controlled prices only at the sites it operated, which are determined in line with ‘local competition’. A Sainsbury’s spokesman said it always aimed to provide customers with ‘great value’.