Major change could make finding cheapest petrol easier – here’s how

A MAJOR change could make finding the cheapest petrol easier wherever you are.

The government aims to provide drivers with the price of fuel at every petrol station to prevent garages from inflating prices.

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Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has asked Treasury and business department officials to look into a system to require petrol stations to submit price information to a central body.

The scheme is based on a Northern Irish project that tracks gasoline prices across the province.

And has been partially responsible for keeping prices lower than in the rest of the UK.

According to the latest figures from RAC, motorists in Northern Ireland are paying an average of 145p for a litre of petrol.

However, drivers in the southeast of England are paying 151p.

This means that motorists driving an average car could afford to travel about 20 miles further and still be better off with cheaper petrol.

And the price gap for diesel is even higher, with the average cost in Northern Ireland of 165p per litre compared with 173p in the east and southeast of England.

Officials are also considering setting up a new unit that would collect data on wholesale prices to establish a benchmark cost of fuel.

This comes after drivers complained about petrol stations that quickly increase their prices when fuel costs rise but are slow to pass on savings when they drop.

Benchmark prices would be set at regional levels.

And the petrol stations that agree to not set prices above these levels will be allowed to display a kitemark on forecourts.

Howard Cox, founder of the pressure group FairfuelUK said to the Times: ” No one is opposed to petrol retailers earning a decent living but the current system is far too opaque.

“We have been in a war of attrition on this for far too long and it is good that the government finally recognises that pump prices are not fair.”

Simon Williams from RAC said that if prices could be much lower in Northern Ireland, there was no reason they couldn’t be set at the same level in the UK.

“Hopefully, this could be the stick we need to force retailers to price more fairly.

“You wouldn’t expect them to do that with food.”