Cable hints at extra fuel discount for rural Yorkshire

BUSINESS Secretary Vince Cable has given hope to motorists in rural Yorkshire that they will benefit from an extra fuel discount if a pilot scheme succeeds.

The 5p-a-litre discount is set to be trialed on several Scottish islands and the Isles of Scilly if Ministers get European approval, and MPs have been lobbying for it to be rolled out to the mainland if it is workable.

Hopes had been fading because Ministers have increasingly stressed it was aimed at “far flung” remote places such as islands, but Mr Cable has suggested it could be applied much more widely.

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Mr Cable said: “It cannot apply everywhere, the European Union have some fairly strict rules but the French have taken advantage of them and applied this rebate in quite a few of their rural areas.

“I think it is designed for remote rural communities, which Scotland and its Highlands are obvious cases, as are parts of Wales, parts of Cumbria, Cornwall.”

David Cameron yesterday insisted the Government was doing all it could to help hard-pressed families – describing fuel-duty curbs in the Budget as a “very big decision”. The Chancellor has cut duty by 1p and put off a 5p increase due to come into force in April until next year to ease the burden on drivers.

But AA president Edmund King said there were “mixed” signs over whether the fuel duty cut had been passed on at the pumps after being unveiled in the Budget.

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A Murco filling station on Princes Avenue, Hull, was among those which kept its prices at 131.9 per litre unleaded and 136.9 diesel.

The oil industry denied suggestions from Labour that the windfall tax on North Sea activities – to pay for the duty cut – would be passed on at the pumps, but Oil and Gas UK warned it would cause cutbacks, including job losses.

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