PumpWatch is a win – but it should follow my plan if it wants to help motorists

AT LAST! A government has woken up and recognised that Britain’s 37million motorists do matter.

For far too long we have been subjected to a litany of government anti-driver policies and a fuel industry that sees drivers as targets to be cheated.

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I’m absolutely delighted that the Competitions and Markets Authority has recommended a watchdog to monitor the price of petrol and diesel at the pumps.

For five long years The Sun and my campaign group, FairFuelUK, have railed against the unchecked profiteering the fuel industry has been allowed to inflict on motorists.

This new monitoring body, which I proposed in 2018 to hold the fuel supply chain to account, is more than welcome — it is critical to the economy.

Petrol is still 10p a litre more expensive than it should be and diesel is 15p too high, needlessly adding an extra £5 to £8 to fill up the average family car.

The CMA backing fuel scheme PumpWatch is a massive thing.

For the first time, drivers are going to be respected when it comes to the price they will pay at the pump.

But this new organisation must have TEETH.

We have become used to watchdogs that hardly bark, let alone bite the industries they were set up to regulate.

Scared of scrutiny

You only have to look at the Ofwat organisation and the terrible state of the water industry.

Just last week, The Sun named the guardians that have failed to protect us from potholed roads, soaring interest rates, savage energy bills and record-breaking hospital waiting lists.

The way PumpWatch will operate is up for discussion, as is who will manage it.

But it is likely to be a government-run website and app, where filling stations will supply their pump prices daily so motorists can find the cheapest fuel in their area.

There are fuel price apps out there at the moment but they mostly rely on customers to report the petrol and diesel prices in their area.

With filling stations supplying daily data, PumpWatch will be a true and more accurate representation of what is going on at the forecourts of Britain, something we have never had before.

PumpWatch will also have all the up-to-date, almost real-time, retail information, oil prices and exchange rates, so how prices are calculated will at last be totally transparent.

Hopefully, in future every wholesaler and retailer will be stopped from pulling the wool over our eyes and they will have to accept that they must price fuel fairly and honestly.

PumpWatch is currently at Stage One, which means taking part will be voluntary.

Yet with garages that don’t take part being exposed, consumers will demand: What have they got to hide?

And if the fuel industry doesn’t take part willingly and sensibly, the Government will move to Stage Two, full-blown legislation to actually impose fines and do real damage to the fuel supply chain’s wallets, instead of ours.

Take it from me, the industry’s supply chain is scared of being scrutinised.

They have had it too good for far too long.

I have already had calls from people within the chain, including from the heads of some associations representing retailers, saying, “Well you got what you wanted”.

My reply was: “I want you to make respectable profits but please understand that you cannot go on fleecing drivers. Be transparent with your pricing and I will be your best friend for ever.”

Until 2019, oil companies and retailers were making around 10p a litre profit from fuel.

From 2020 they have been averaging punitive margins as high as 20p to 30p a litre.

And diesel is certainly NOT being priced fairly.

For the past three or four months its wholesale price has been considerably lower than petrol.

But have you seen diesel cheaper than petrol anywhere in the UK?

Why is the fuel chain putting a dishonest extra margin on diesel drivers?

The fuel is the commercial heartbeat of our economy.

More disposable income

Sixty per cent of all fuel dispensed is road diesel because it is used in trucks and vans to keep business and the economy moving.

The UK is one of only a handful of nations out of 200 countries that continually charges more for diesel than petrol, as you can see on the left.

Germany, for example, prices diesel 15p lower than petrol.

In the Netherlands it is 26p less and it is 12p cheaper in France.

Yet here diesel is averaging 3p more than petrol.

If the Government had insisted on fuel being sold at the correct price, diesel would now be 15p cheaper.

I estimate that inflation would currently be one per cent lower and the cost-of- living crisis would certainly be lessened.

Sun readers would have more disposable income, because filling up would cost less and they would spend more of their hard- earned cash in the high street, to keep shops and businesses viable.

We must make sure PumpWatch is strong enough to ensure fuel prices are finally honest and to stop drivers from being fleeced on an industrial scale.