Pumped-up prices prompt call for rural fuel duty cut

FUEL duty should be cut in rural areas to ease the pressure on families facing record prices at the pump, ministers have been told.

Analysis by the Liberal Democrats suggests households in rural areas paid £114 in transport costs each week in the year to March 2020, almost £40 more than those in urban areas and equating to an extra burden of almost £2,000 per year.

The party is calling for an expansion of the rural fuel duty relief scheme, which is currently offered in a handful of remote areas of the UK, to places where “public transport options are limited and drivers are being disproportionately hit by rising fuel prices”.

This would include Devon, Cornwall, Cumbria, Shropshire and Wales, it said.

The Lib Dems also want the relief to be doubled to 10p a litre. The Government’s 5p fuel duty cut was put forward as a key part of its support with the cost of living crisis.

However, pump prices have continued soaring since it was introduced in March, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine disrupts oil supply.

Last week, the cost of filling an average family car hit a record £100. The RAC said the cost of filling a 55-litre tank reached £100.27 for petrol and £103.43 for diesel.

Tim Farron, the Lib Dems’ rural affairs spokesman, said: “The Government must act now to help rural families on the brink, by expanding the fuel duty relief scheme.

“Ministers need to also crack down on the petrol profiteers who are cashing in on people’s misery at the pump.”

It comes as Kwasi Kwarteng has ordered an “urgent” investigation into petrol station operators amid concerns some are pocketing the multibillionpound cut to fuel duty announced by the Chancellor in March.

In a letter to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the Business Secretary wrote people were “rightly frustrated” that the reduction of 5p per litre had not stopped prices from soaring.

Mr Kwarteng instructed the CMA to “increase the transparency that consumers have over prices” and called for the CMA’S advice on the “extent to which competition has resulted in the fuel duty cut being passed on to consumers, and the reasons for local variations in the price of road fuel”.

In response to the analysis of rural fuel prices, a Government spokesman said: “We understand that people are struggling with rising prices which is why we have acted to protect the eight million most vulnerable British families through at least £1,200 of direct payments this year with additional support for pensioners and those claiming disability benefits.”