Demand for fairer fuel price for all
MPs will this week vote on moves to stop supermarkets hiking petrol prices in towns and villages.
Campaigners claim supermarkets fleece customers in towns and rural areas where there is less competition by charging them more for fuel than in the cities.
Many people can’t avoid the higher prices as they rely on their cars to get to work or to ferry children to school and clubs due to a lack of public transport.
Tory MP Mark Garnier is set to introduce a bill this week that would give the competition watchdog the power to force stores to cut prices.
He said: “It’s about giving the regulator a big stick and putting down a clear marker to the supermarkets that their current behaviour is not acceptable.
“If you live in a more rural area the difference in petrol prices can cause quite a bit of anguish.
“In my constituency you quite often find a seven pence premium between a town like Kidderminster, where there is less competition, and a petrol station on the outskirts of Birmingham.”
Although supermarkets only have 16% of the petrol stations in the UK they account for 43% of fuel sales by volume.
The Sunday Post found significant regional differences in petrol prices.
According to price comparison website PetrolPrices.com drivers in Wick were being charged 107.9p per litre by Tesco in Wick while Tesco forecourts in Glasgow only charged 104.9p for unleaded.
That means motorists in the more rural locations are paying more than £1 more for a full tank.
Petrol at supermarket Morrison’s in Newcastle is a penny per litre cheaper than it is up the road at their branch in Morpeth.
Former Top Gear presenter turned campaigner with the Fair Fuel lobbying group, Quentin Willson, pictured below, said: “This is a really good idea.
“At the moment we have a situation where retailers try to get away with charging what they can.”
The powers in Garnier’s bill would extend to motorways service stations where customers can pay up to £10 extra for a full tank. A spokeswoman for Tesco said: “We sell our fuel at a price that is competitive for the local community.
A Morrisons spokesman said: “Morrisons, like all fuel retailers in the UK, uses a local pricing policy in order to deliver benefits to as many motorists across the country as
possible.”