A few months ago, I was very glad that the Chancellor responded to the letter I signed with 50 other Conservative MPs calling for a cut in fuel duty by reducing it by 5 pence per litre. This was done in recognition of the unprecedented circumstances pushing up fuel prices.
However, it seems as if a number of retailers have been delaying passing on the full value of the cut to fuel duty to consumers.
On Tuesday evening I discussed pump prices with the Secretary of State for Business, Kwasi Kwarteng MP, the Minister of State for Energy, Greg Hands MP and other MPs.
The Secretary of State has written to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), acknowledging that people are rightly frustrated that the 5p-a-litre reduction has not stopped prices from soaring to record levels at forecourts.
He has asked the CMA to conduct an urgent review of the retail fuel market, and a longer-term study that would examine the health of competition in the market, to examine whether it has hurt consumer interests amid rising prices. For example, some filling stations seem to be competing on price with others in their locality, whereas sometimes it seems that there might be tacit agreements not to compete too aggressively.
I would be interested to hear your experiences of local competition and pricing, either in the comments or via email to aaron.bell.mp@parliament.uk. If you have specific evidence of anti-competitive behaviour, you can report it to the CMA here: https://www.gov.uk/.../tell-the-cma-about-a-competition...
