UK motorists are being ‘ripped off’ at the pumps, the AA warns.
Responding to this morning’s government data showing a rise in petrol retailers’ margins, Luke Bosdet, the AA’s spokesman on pump prices, says:
“UK consumers faced by inflationary pressures on all fronts and trying to stretch their budgets as far as they can will be incensed by this confirmation of what they suspected – they continue to be ripped off at the pumps.
The most blatantly obvious sign of this is the postcode lottery of pump prices between neighbouring towns. This is where price-matching between local rivals often, in effect, gives them permission to charge significantly more than in a town down the road.
That means that, if a competitive retailer in one town pulls the local average 2p below the UK average while the average in a neighbouring town is allowed to go 2p above, drivers in the rip-off town lose out by 4p a litre or more than £2 a tank.
Sadly, there are more rip-off towns than there are competitive ones.
AA analysis of initial use of price searches on its app shows a big demand for this information from the CMA voluntary price scheme. The fuel trade needs to mend it ways or drivers will do it for them when the Government’s mandatory Fuel Finder scheme goes live early next year.”
