Festive fuel: Petrol continues to plumit in price
Dec 21st, 2008 by Jamie Bradley
It’s coming up to Christmas now and if you weren’t in the festive mood already, then one glance at one of the four major supermarket’s fuel price boards will have you beaming with joy; unless you’re a devoted pedestrian of course.
With prices on a seemingly endless downward spiral, it surely won’t be too long before we’re paying less than 80p per litre, especially if a certain Mr Claus endeavours to make a stop at Morrisons, Asda, Tesco or Sainsbury’s over the next few days.
The cost of petrol currently sits at a competitive price of 86.9p per litre, with diesel only 8p behind on a modest 98.9p. Four months ago, you would have been forgiven for thinking such figures were exclusive to the past, with prices, at the time, soaring into the 130’s for diesel; and unleaded was not far behind at all, hitting 124.9.
In October, both Asda and Sainsbury’s vowed to cut their unleaded petrol prices to as low as 94.9p per litre; how times have changed. Even at your local garage, you wouldn’t expect to pay such inflated prices for your fuel, unless, of course, you own a diesel car that is.
Nevertheless, those prices were said to be the contemporary pinnacle of low fuel costs. Here we are just four days away from Christmas and already those prices have fallen by a further 8p, contrary to reports published in late October by the BBC.
I often find on my weekly shopping trip to Morrison’s, in Lincoln, that with each visit the cost of both diesel and unleaded fuel has been slashed since my last visit and that trend has continued for the past two months.
Although, it only seems to be falling at the rate of 1p per week, it is enough for me to save a couple of pounds each time I fill up and that has certainly had more of an impact upon my bank balance than any VAT reductions will ever have, in my opinion.
However, for you 4×4 drivers out there, especially, I’m sure you’ve noticed a dramatic increase in your annual road tax outgoings, in light of the government’s plans to encourage people to drive more economical efficient vehicles, or make use of walking more often.
So, what effect will a decline in fuel prices have on the government’s carbon emmission reduction scheme? Will this encourage further tax increases on petrol, to ensure that it does not become so price economical that the days of driving where driving is not necessary become days of the past?
In a time when the country is in such financial difficulty, I would find it hard to believe that the Labour government would look to dictate a rise in fuel costs; the one thing that has gone down in price over the past few months, even so following their policy to reduce VAT to help ’save’ the economy from financial mletdown.
Many people, including myself, will be hoping that 2009 will not see the end in a decline in fuel prices and although a new decade is on the horizon, drivers will hopefully be looking back to the 70’s instead; well, when they reach the pumps that is.
By Jamie Bradley
