𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Motorists could be forgiven for wondering what happened to Labour’s promise to make life more affordable. Diesel has just hit record two quid, while a litre of unleaded isn’t far behind at £1.75. Filling a family-sized diesel car now costs around £110, almost £32 more than before the US-Iran conflict began. Petrol drivers are paying about £23 more for a full tank. And it could get worse, with the world’s biggest independent oil trader Vitol Group warning crude could double from just over $100 a barrel to $200.

If that happens, many motorists will be driven off the road. They simply can’t keep up with those sorts of price increases, on top of everything else. Andy Burnham can’t control global oil prices, but his government can decide how much tax to levy on every litre. That puts Chancellor John Healey under growing pressure to ease the burden in his Budget on October 28.

As every motorist knows, the wholesale oil price isn’t the only thing that affects what we pay at the pumps. When we fill up, we’re topping up the taxman’s tank too. First, there’s fuel duty, an excise tax charged at a fixed rate for every litre of petrol or diesel sold. The current rate is 52.95p a litre. On top of that, motorists pay VAT at 20%, calculated on the whole price, including fuel duty.

Tax accounts for roughly 47% of a litre of petrol costing 175p, and around 43% of diesel at £2. Fuel duty has been frozen at its main rate since 2011, apart from the temporary 5p-a-litre cut introduced in March 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent energy prices soaring. Successive governments extended that cut rather than risk an immediate increase at the pumps.

Former Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves continued the freeze and the 5p cut in her 2024 and 2025 Budgets. She even cancelled a planned inflation-linked increase. But she left a timebomb behind for Healey, by announcing a gradual reversal of the temporary cut.

Under her timetable, motorists face a 3p rise in January, then another 2p in March. That will take fuel duty back towards its pre-2022 level. Desperate motorists want that scrapped and more. Howard Cox, founder of FairFuelUK, has called for a 10p cut in fuel duty to “stop hammering Britain’s motorists, hauliers and farmers”.

So what’s Burnham doing? Nowhere near enough. The Government has added petrol and diesel prices to Google Maps, promoting it as a way for drivers to find cheaper forecourts. Ministers estimate the scheme could save households around £40 a year.

There’s a problem. That information is already available through a range of apps including Waze, PetrolPrices, the AA, Confused.com and RAC Fuel Watch. Burnham is doing little new, while trying to claim the glory for it.

Google Maps makes finding cheaper fuel more convenient. It doesn’t make fuel cheaper. And some motorists have questioned whether all the displayed prices are accurate or up to date.

Extending the 5p cut prevents the planned tax increase for now. Scrapping the remaining duty altogether would go much further. But with fuel duty raising more than £24 billion a year for the Treasury, and Healey’s fiscal headroom vanishing by the day, relief is far from guaranteed.

Healey has not committed to further fuel-duty cuts in the Budget. He may decide to postpone Reeves’s planned increases, but motorists can’t assume relief is coming. So far, Burnham’s help is more like a slap in the face. Motorists may get another one in the Budget.