16 Mar Drivers will be ‘celebrating’ Budget fuel duty freeze, says campaigner
FAIR fuel prices campaigner Howard Cox has hailed the fuel duty freeze in the Budget as a victory for drivers and logistics firms.
He told GB News: ”I’m very very happy indeed. It’s been a hell of a battle.
“I’ve been doing this for 13 years. We’ve had a freeze in the last 13 years and in total a 6p cut. I couldn’t be happier.
“I mean, obviously, I’d like to have seen a big cut, I’d like to go further but I don’t think any government has got the risk in them to do that.
“But fundamentally, yes, I’m very happy – drivers and logistics companies and van drivers will be actually celebrating this.”
He told Mark Longhurst: “I am disappointed that they didn’t introduce a pump price regulatory body that we call PumpWatch.
“I heard through the grapevine and was told by some MPs that people like Andrea Leadsom had been fighting for this in Parliament.
“We had hoped he would actually mention PumpWatch, so that is still a battle that I’m continuing but I won’t be churlish, I’m delighted.”
Mr Cox continued: “It’s not the retailers themselves that are ripping drivers off. It’s further at the fuel supply chain.
‘Businesses like Shell and BP, have been actually, no doubt about it, making huge amounts of money out of motorists.”
Asked why supermarket fuel prices seem high, he said: “There’s a lot of takeover bids going on…equity businesses and investors looking after the bottom lines of these companies.
“Where we used to actually see petrol and diesel as loss leaders, for people to actually come in and say if you buy £50 pounds worth of goods or food from the shops, they will get something like 5p off of a litre of fuel.
“We’re not seeing that now. I think that model has gone completely and unfortunately because of that pump prices will continue to be quite high.”
