South West Bedfordshire MP, Andrew Selous, has written to the Competitions and Markets Authority about the unacceptably high petrol prices locally compared with other parts of the country.
After further investigation it has been found that the same companies have been charging more in South West Bedfordshire for petrol than they have been in their garages in close geographical locations. Data from the 1st July 2022 has shown that the cost of Unleaded petrol per litre in both Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire is over 2p cheaper on average. Diesel costs are also less in both Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire at 0.87p and 0.75p cheaper per litre on average. However, there have been cases of the difference being even higher than that. Over a 10-day period in the last month Unleaded petrol purchases made differentiated by almost 5 pence a litre with the Asda in Bletchley charging (189.7P/L), the Shell at Porthmadog (189.9 P/L) and the Tesco in Aylesbury (188.9 P/L) at which time both Tesco and Shell in South West Bedfordshire were at 193.9 per litre.
Andrew Selous MP said,
“With constituents feeling the pressures of the living costs crisis it is unacceptable that companies are trying to increase profits off already high petrol costs. I implore these companies to drop their price back down in line with the true market value before the Competitions and Markets Authority have to take action.”