Fuel prices are rising again, ripping off more drivers – where is the promised Pumpwatch?
SO much for the fuel market settling back down – average pump prices are now above £1.56 for petrol and diesel is rapidly approaching £1.60.
These punishing costs for consumers and businesses are set to impact badly on the next inflation numbers.
It will be a blow to Rishi Sunak’s pledge to halve the rate of inflation this year.
But much of this pain could have been so easily avoided.
In July, motorists heaved a sigh of relief when the Competition and Markets Authority finally recognised that the fuel supply chain has been profiteering from secret diesel and petrol pricing at the pumps.
The watchdog decided that my idea of PumpWatch — a fuel monitoring database, championed by The Sun — was urgently needed to drive down costs and help motorists find the cheapest pump prices.
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Unchecked dishonesty
The CMA recommended its immediate introduction to hold the fuel supply industry to account.
As an olive branch to those fuel suppliers, PumpWatch would be supported by them voluntarily in the first instance.
Back in July, there was much fanfare as to how the Government has listened and would act.
The then Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Grant Shapps, boasted of getting the UK’s oil companies and the big four supermarket brands around the table.
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Yet three months later, there is apparently still no sign of PumpWatch.
WHY?
Putting it bluntly, nothing seems to have happened and all the ministerial promises appear to have been dumped.
But since the CMA’s report, major oil- producing countries including Russia, known as OPEC+, have cut production to stimulate demand and greedily hike their profit margins.
Since the beginning of July, Brent crude oil, priced in Pounds sterling, has increased by 15 per cent.
Today, retail petrol profit levels are around 18p per litre — up 16 per cent since early July.
That’s £5.50 extra on every family car fill-up.
Five years ago, profit on a litre of petrol hovered around 10p.
In this hideous cost-of-living crisis that extra 8p a litre hurts and is financially debilitating for small businesses and low-income families.
We are also seeing diesel wholesale prices rocketing again, up 13 per cent since the beginning of July. This bodes badly for the commercial sector.
The difference between retail diesel and petrol prices has always been unexplainable and we continue to witness the same unchecked dishonesty in the way diesel prices are calculated.
The reason PumpWatch is so popular with drivers and so needed is simple — pump pricing does not follow any logical link to oil price changes.
There is simply no logical correlation with oil wholesale and retail costs.
For example, in February last year, when oil was priced at similar levels to today, petrol was 10p cheaper at the pumps.
It looks like, when oil costs rises, pump prices rocket, yet when the costs of oil falls, prices float down like a feather.
That’s why we were all excited by PumpWatch being recognised by the CMA as the solution to delivering honesty at the pumps.
Why can Costco in Watford charge petrol at 141.9 a litre while BP is pricing unleaded 14p higher?
PumpWatch held out so much promise to get fairer, transparent and more honest pump pricing.
So why has the Conservative govern- ment seemingly gone so cold on it?
It is a vote winner and will drive down inflation more effectively that increasing bank interest rates.
As founder of FairFuelUK, I wrote last week to Grant Shapps’s successor, new Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho, asking: “Where are the promised national pump pricing database and PumpWatch regulatory watchdog?”
I have yet to get a reply.
We are a couple of months away from the Autumn Statement, and shockingly I hear rumblings that fuel duty may be hiked.
Right thing
You would think, after 13 years of campaigning by myself and The Sun, the Government would recognise that pump prices massively influence the nation’s economy.
How much more can the UK’s 37million drivers take?
Ultra-Low Emission Zones, Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods, 20mph zones, parking charge hikes, potholes and being blamed for all the ills of the planet and our health are all hitting motorists in the pocket.
Chancellor, give us a break and do the right thing.
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Get PumpWatch activated now, with a promise to motoring voters that fuel duty will be cut or at least frozen in the Autumn Statement on November 22.
Any other option is political suicide.