Petrol retailers urged to pass on fall in price of fuel to motorists

Pump prices have “barely budged” from the late summer high of just over 138p a litre despite a 2p-a-litre fall in the wholesale price of petrol a fortnight ago and a further 3p drop last week, according to the latest AA Fuel Price Report.

Petrol averaged 132p at the start of the year, “and this is where it should be heading if the wholesale price collapse persists”, the report said.

On Tuesday, the average price of petrol across the UK stood at 137.64p a litre, despite Asda cutting its national petrol price cap to 133.7p last week and some independent retailers beginning to take a penny off the cost of a litre.

Throughout the July to mid-September holiday period UK drivers paid on average 1.5p a litre more than they did last summer, although the cost of petrol failed to repeat the brief 140p-a-litre surge this time last year. A comparison of wholesale and pump figures showed the impact of turmoil in Egypt and Syria lifted prices to above 137p from late July, followed by a fall in wholesale prices a fortnight ago and a “collapse” in the past 10 days.

However, even last week pump prices continued to creep up, the report shows. The average price of diesel in the UK has risen from 141.87p a litre in mid August to 142.50p in mid-September.

The AA urged fuel retailers to pass on cost savings quickly, but said it was mindful of the volatility in the fuel price market.

AA president Edmund King said there was a “blatantly unfair pump price postcode lottery” where at some supermarkets last weekend motorists paid £2.50 a tank more than in other towns.