Chancellor George Osborne has said he expects the price of fuel at the pumps to decrease following a fall in the price of oil.
The price of oil has fallen from $115 (£72) per barrel in June to around $84 (£52) today (November), while fuel has fallen by around 8p per litre since the summer.
According to motoring organisation the AA, two-thirds of the amount paid per litre of fuel is accounted for by a combination of VAT at 20% and fuel duty.
The Chancellor called for fuel companies to reduce the price for customers.
“Our message is clear – the oil price has fallen and we expect that to be passed on to people at the petrol station filling up their cars,” said Osborne.
Fuel campaigners believe more could be done by the Government to reduce the price of fuel for consumers, suggesting the price of petrol should be at around 116.9p instead of the 124p it is now, with diesel costing 3p a litre more.
“We believe Oil Speculators are stopping the price decrease happening quicker for their own profiteering motives”, Howard Cox founder of FairFuelUK said.
The Chancellor’s announcement comes a week after three major UK supermarkets reduced their prices.
