South West Bedfordshire MP Andrew Selous has called out the behaviour of some supermarkets and petrol retailers for consistently selling petrol and diesel for up to 10p a litre less in neighbouring Hemel Hempstead and Berkhamsted than they do in Leighton Buzzard, Dunstable and Houghton Regis.
The exchange with the Leader of the House of Commons this morning was as follows
Hemel Hempstead and Berkhamsted are fewer than 15 miles from Leighton Buzzard, Dunstable and Houghton Regis, and yet petrol has regularly been 10p a litre cheaper in Hemel Hempstead and Berkhamsted than in my constituency, quite often at the same supermarket. The tanker is literally going up the road and charging 10p a litre more to my constituents. The Competition and Markets Authority is independent—I understand that—but it should be accountable to this House. It is simply not acceptable to have that level of profiteering from my constituents, who are struggling with their bills at the moment. What are the Government going to do about that?
This has been an issue for some time. As my hon. Friend will know, Fair Fuel UK has been monitoring the disparities, and the Competition and Markets Authority has suggested that something additional is going on, over and above the lag between wholesale purchase and the price at the pump. The issue is important to many people, and The Sun has been campaigning on it as well. The message from all Members to the CMA should be that it pulls its finger out and gets to the bottom of this so that we ensure our constituents and businesses are dealt with fairly. Such a huge additional cost is not helping the cost of living. Fuel at the pump is a vital commodity, and people should not be paying pay more for it than they have to.
Speaking afterwards, Andrew Selous said “At a time of massive pressure on household budgets, it is simply not acceptable that some of our big supermarkets and petrol retailers think they can get away with charging so much more in south Bedfordshire than they do in neighbouring Hertfordshire. I want the Competition and Markets Authority to take this issue really seriously, which I do not think they have done to date and I have asked the government to put pressure on them to do so.”