MILITARY SAYS FUEL MOVING IN BUT BORIS CRISIS IS ‘STABILISING’
BORIS Johnson assured the nation the fuel crisis is “stabilising” after days of panic buying, despite warnings that shortages are getting worse in some parts of the country.
Military drivers will start delivering fuel to forecourts tomorrow as the Prime Minister said it was important to take “all possible precautions”.
“The situation is stabilising. You need to take all possible precautions but the supplies are getting in, they are getting to the forecourts and people just need to be going about their business in the normal way,” he said.
He promised to keep the temporary visas for foreign driver under review, but warned the industry not to depend on low-wage labour.
He said: “What we don’t want to do is go back to a situation in which we basically allowed the road haulage industry to be sustained with a lot of low-wage immigration that meant wages didn’t go up and the quality of the job didn’t go up.
“The weird thing is that people don’t want to go into the road haulage industry, don’t want to be lorry drivers, precisely because you have that mass immigration approach.”
Almost 200 members of the Armed Forces, including 100 drivers, have been training at haulier sites and will start deliveries to help relieve the situation at petrol stations, which ministers insist is getting better.
It came as the Government extended a temporary visa scheme for nearly 5,000 foreign food haulage drivers, which was due to expire on December 24, until the end of February, following criticism of its attractiveness to drivers.
The two measures are designed to reduce the supply crisis gripping Britain and were announced as ministers arrived in Manchester for the start of the Conservative Party conference this morning.
The military personnel were called in to relieve the fuel crisis after the Petrol Retailers Association warned shortages remain a “really big problem” in London and the South-east, adding that the situation had “if anything” got worse.
The Government’s own figures yesterday showed London, the Southeast, the East Midlands and Eastern England remained in the “red” zone, with fuel stocks at filling stations below 20 per cent.
This is half the “normal” figure of about 40 per cent of stocks.
The demand for fuel was demon
strated by a Gulf station in west London selling out, despite charging £2.93 per litre.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid last night insisted there was “enough fuel in the country” and said the arrival of military personnel will further stabilise the situation and give more confidence.
Brian Madderson, of the Petrol Retailers Association, welcomed the deployment of drivers from the Armed Forces but said it would not be a “major panacea”.
He warned that rising world oil prices mean motorists should expect higher prices to remain when filling stations are resupplied.
“Expect anything from 1p, 2p or even 3p a litre increases at the pump.
“This is not profiteering. This is genuine wholesale price increases caused by global factors,” he said.the
price per litre of petrol last week hit 136.8p, up from around 116.5p at the start of the year. It is feared a postpandemic surge in the cost of oil will see petrol prices rise further in the months ahead.
Conservative MP Robert Halfon wants a “Pumpwatch” watchdog established to ensure retailers do not exploit motorists and hike up prices unfairly.
He said: “Profiteering retailers must not use the current difficulties to take hard-pressed motorists for fools. We need a Pumpwatch regulator so that working people get a fair price at the pumps.”
Howard Cox, founder of Fairfueluk, supports the creation of such a watchdog.
He said: “If gas, electricity, water and telecoms get price protection bodies, why shouldn’t motorists have one too. Most of the profiteering is at wholesale level not by small independent retailers, who are also victims of the greedy fuel supply chain.”
Fairfueluk is calling for fuel duty to be cut by 3p in next month’s budget.
Rother Valley Conservative MP Alexander Stafford said his constituents fear prices will not fall when the present disrupaverage
tion ends. “Everywhere, petrol has gone up in price. I want that price to come down, when things have stabilised, to the price it was,” he said.
The RAC claims petrol prices are being driven by the cost of oil, which last week hit a threeyear high at £59.62 per barrel.
The motoring organisation has warned prices could go up to £66.45 before the end of the year, pushing unleaded petrol to 143p per litre.
A Government spokesman said: “The price of crude oil is increasing across the world, increasing the price consumers pay. This is a global trend and not just in the UK.
“There are no shortages of fuel. We have taken immediate action to increase the supply of HGV drivers and we are seeing continued signs that the situation at the pumps is improving.
“UK forecourt stock levels are trending up, deliveries of fuel are above normal levels and fuel demand is stabilising.”
Christopher Snowdon, of the Institute of Economic Affairs, claimed the fuel crisis was made worse by forecourts increasing prices too slowly.
He said: “There was never a fuel shortage until irrational panic created one.”