June 01 2018
Increasing costs for road users is politically difficult. This is one of the reasons why we have had seven years and eight consecutive budgets where fuel duty has been frozen at a time of historically low oil prices and austerity.
The result of seven years of fuel duty freezes is that the price of fuel at the pump is 13% lower than it would otherwise have been. While the freeze has been welcomed by many road users and has undoubtedly been of benefit to people struggling on low incomes dependent on car travel, there have been some unintended consequences.