Petrol hits an all-time high: Cost of filling family car tops £96 today as pressure grows to freeze fuel duty... and AA warns it will get worse



Diesel fill-up is already more than £100 per tank

Unleaded prices 0.09p short of record following 1.25p rise in last week

Cost of filling 70-litre Ford Mondeo soars from £78.92 to £96.14 in two years

Pressure: George Osborne is being urged to cut fuel duty in his budget this month - but the signs are he will not

Petrol prices have hit an all-time high today as the cost of unleaded continues the march towards the £100 fill-up.

Prices at the pump have reached 137.44p, beating the previous record 137.43p - set in May last year - by 0.01p.

Diesel is up to 144.67p - another new record, said the AA.



Last night the AA warned that this figure could rise further, and today's figure means the average family have seen the cost of filling up their car soar by £18 to more than £96 over the past two years. A diesel fill-up has already exceeded the £100 mark.

The news increased pressure on Chancellor George Osborne to cut fuel duty again for the UK’s 33million motorists – but all the signals from the Treasury are that he will not.

AA president Edmund King said: 'This new record for petrol and diesel just confirms what every family and business knows - fuel prices are hurting them badly and there seems no stopping them.

'We have asked the Chancellor to do what he can to protect the UK economy from fuel market volatility and record high prices which are stemming growth.'

Mr King went on: 'There is no more give in family and business budgets despite them cutting back on fuel purchase and other spending so they can get to work and go about their business.

'Britain cannot get back on its feet if fuel prices hold drivers and business to ransom every time market sentiment takes hold.'



It comes days after the Daily Mail revealed that the UK is the fuel tax capital of Europe. British motorists are shouldering the heaviest tax burden in the EU at the pumps, paying 60p in every pound in duty and VAT.

The AA said pump prices were being pushed up by soaring oil and wholesale prices which, in turn, were driven by instability in the Middle East and ‘greedy speculators’.

It expects up to 3p more to be added by the summer, taking average prices to 140.43p a litre.

AA spokesman Luke Bosdet said: ‘A return to last year’s record petrol prices will confirm to drivers that 2012 is a carbon copy of 2011 – oil price rises stoked by concerns about the Middle East, boosted by stock market speculation.

‘UK motorists and businesses couldn’t afford these costs last year and they still can’t. Economic recovery will suffer, fuel demand and tax receipts will fall and firms will go bust. It feels like Groundhog Day, but with nothing to laugh about and a sense that the ordeal is getting worse with no way to prevent it.’

Soaring: The average petrol price is just a fraction under the record of 137.43p - while diesel has already broken through the record 143.04p per litre barrier set last year

Unleaded prices are just 0.09p a litre short of the record set in May 2011, following a 1.25p rise in the past week alone.

Mr Bosdet added: ‘Speculators are driving up the prices at the pumps against a background of uncertainty in the Middle East. The market is being aggressively stoked up. There’s no transparency over pricing – it’s getting out of control.’

Two years ago, the average price of petrol was 112.74p per litre. Last night it was 137.34p, an increase of 24.6p per litre.

Over that two-year period, the cost of filling up a Ford Mondeo with a 70-litre tank has soared from £78.92 to £96.14, well on the way to the average £100 fill-up, with some drivers of petrol cars at the most expensive filling stations already paying it.

Pump misery: The cost of filling a 70-litre Ford Mondeo tank has now hit £96

Drivers of diesel Mondeos are already enduring the ‘ton-up’ fill-up. On February 17 diesel broke through the record 143.04p per litre barrier also set in May last year and has been climbing to new highs ever since. Yesterday it was a record 144.6p per litre.

The cost of filling up a diesel Mondeo has risen from £79.65 two years ago to £101.22 today.

Mr Bosdet said: ‘The AA has written to the Chancellor calling for an investigation of the oil, refining, fuel product and retail markets to ensure UK families and business are protected from over-inflated prices and supply difficulties.

‘It has also called for an end to annual fuel duty hikes while the economy falters. This includes cancelling the planned rise in August.’

A Treasury spokesman said: ‘At the Autumn Statement, the Government took more action to help households with motoring costs by freezing fuel duty until August and scrapping a second planned rise altogether.

‘This came after our decision to cut fuel duty at Budget 2011, abolish the fuel duty escalator and replace it with a fair fuel stabiliser.

‘Petrol and diesel will be an average of 10p per litre cheaper than if we had proceeded with the escalator introduced in 2009.’

A 5p-a-litre discount on petrol and diesel prices comes into force this week on some remote Scottish islands and the Isles of Scilly.

But local MPs have complained that prices have been jacked up in advance of the discount, so that motorists are no better off.

Today's unwanted records follow a survey by the Countryside Alliance which showed that the price of diesel in rural filling stations is, on average, 4p more than in urban areas.

The alliance said cars are becoming an 'unaffordable necessity' for many living in rural communities.



The costliest diesel - at 146.9p a litre - was in Purbeck in Dorset and Ryedale in North Yorkshire.



In contrast, diesel in Birmingham and in Dartford in south east London was 'only' 139.7p a litre.



Overall, the alliance found that diesel in rural areas averaged 144p a litre, while in urban areas the average was 140p.



Countryside Alliance executive chairman Barney White-Spunner said: 'Not only do people living in rural areas have to drive further to go to work, further to access essential services like schools, doctors and the supermarket, but they have to pay a lot more for their diesel to do so.



'The cost of fuel is a major concern for everyone who lives in the countryside, and cars are fast becoming an unaffordable necessity for many rural families.



'We urge the Chancellor to help the rural economy get back on its feet and to cut fuel duty in his forthcoming Budget.'



The alliance survey follows findings earlier this week that UK motorists pay more in fuel tax than any other drivers in Europe.



And a report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research has said that cutting fuel duty would create thousands of jobs and could be done at no loss to the Treasury.



Campaign group FairFuelUK met Treasury Minister Chloe Smith this week, armed with the initial findings of the CEBR report.

