Motorists set for price hike

'UK petrol prices could hit a record average high of �1.20 a litre in the next few weeks, according to the AA.

Increases in the wholesale price of petrol since January are to blame for the rise in forecourt prices, the motoring organisation said.

It urged the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, to postpone the introduction of a planned 3p rise in petrol duty due to come in on 1 April.

The average UK price of unleaded petrol is currently just over �1.16 a litre.

The previous record UK average high for unleaded was 119.7p in July 2008, when global crude oil prices were also at an all-time high'

[ripped from the BBC website]

Isn't this great news!

In my eyes if it does go up it should be by 1p... Coz the
goverment put it up 2p to cover the reduction in vat... no
it's back to 17.5% i think thats only fair....

Well according to something I saw the other day the price of petrol has acutally risen pretty much in line with inflation if you look over a very long period of time.

Not saying it doesn't hurt but it's no worse that food at the moment. Perhaps we are just so used to things getting cheaper, like clothes and electronics.

Info from PetrolPrices.com

petrolprices.com wrote: 2009 Fuel Tax Figures 2009 fuel duty (as of 1 September 2009) in the United Kingdom is: 56.19 pence per litre for main road fuels, unleaded petrol and diesel 65.91 pence per litre for leaded petrol 36.19 pence per litre for biodiesel and bioethanol 22.16 pence per kg for road fuel natural gas 27.67 pence per kg for road fuel liquefied petroleum gas ('LPG') On 1 December 2008 a permanent 2p increase in fuel tax was introduced to offset the rate cut in VAT from 17.5% to 15% bringing the duty rate for the main road fuels up to 52.35p per litre. On 1 April 2009 the duty rate for unleaded petrol and diesel was icreased by 1.84 ppl to 54.19p per litre and again on 1 September 2009 by 2 ppl to reach the current level of 56.19 per litre. These rates will be increased further on 1 April 2010 to 2013 by 1% above inflation each year.

When shown graphically with VAT added - see The Price of Petrol it just shows how much goes into government coffers

Listening to debates on the radio I've heard company owners saying that with increased fuel costs it is going to affect their business and may lead to job losses - thank goodness there is an election coming up and we can have a choice of government

Nigel wrote: Peter Fenwick wrote: Well according to something I saw the other day the price of petrol has acutally risen pretty much in line with inflation if you look over a very long period of time. Not saying it doesn't hurt but it's no worse that food at the moment. Perhaps we are just so used to things getting cheaper, like clothes and electronics. Now why didn't I need to look at the user name of that post ?

Aye, but it's right though isn't it

I know my facts sometimes get in the way of a good rant...

WRT to the price of fuel, it's not just down to the tax. The oil companiues are actually charging more for fuel themselves. Apparently this is because they lost a lot of investment in exploration for new oil when the economy crashed so they now need to find the money elsewhere. For elsewhere read - our pockets.

Also Oil is bought in $ and the pound is a lot weaker than it was. So although oil prices in $ are a lot lower than they were when petrol was last this expensive, the difference in � is a lot less.