Minister warns gasoline corporations he’ll ‘call out any foot-dragging’ on transparency
E
nergy Secretary Grant Shapps has warned gasoline retailers he’ll “call out any foot-dragging” over the sharing of pump value knowledge.
He made the remark as drivers have been hit by the most important weekly rise in petrol costs for greater than a yr.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is planning to launch an interim voluntary system for retailers to publish gasoline costs by the tip of the month.
Mr Shapps claimed households are “not getting a fair deal on fuel and are being overcharged”.
In a letter to CMA chief government Sarah Cardell, he wrote: “I want to reiterate the Government’s strong support for the CMA’s temporary scheme for major retailers to make their daily prices available in a common, machine-readable format by the end of August.
“I strongly expect retailers to co-operate with the CMA to develop the voluntary scheme to this timeline and I will not hesitate to call out any foot-dragging.
“Please do keep my officials abreast of participation in the voluntary scheme so we can act if necessary.”
Mr Shapps added that the Government “remains committed” to creating a compulsory open knowledge scheme for gasoline retailers “as soon as possible”.
Figures revealed by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero present UK forecourts charged a median of 146.2p per litre for petrol and 148.2p per litre for diesel on Monday.
Analysis by the PA news company discovered this represents the most important weekly improve in petrol costs since June final yr at 2.1p per litre.
There was a largely uninterrupted fall in common petrol costs from late October 2022 till late June, however pump costs have now risen for 3 consecutive weeks.
AA pump value spokesman Luke Bosdet stated: “The summer of cheaper petrol and diesel has fizzled out as oil producers cut production to force up the cost of oil and therefore increase road fuel prices.
“Drivers have complained about some very rapid rises at the pump – sometimes 2p or 3p a litre in one go.”
“This won’t help the cost-of-living crisis or inflation but, hopefully, more pump price transparency will pressure retailers to be more responsive when costs come back down again.”
Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, stated: “High street retailers might be discounting their prices to lure us back to their shops, but there is no such luck at our service stations as fuel prices rocket just as many families are filling up for their summer holiday getaways.
“We can only hope that fuel companies are still feeling the eyes of ministers and the CMA on them as they calculate how much they really need to charge to cover their costs.”