Petrol Retailers Association executive director Gordon Balmer and other industry representatives are meeting with Chancellor Rachel Reeves this afternoon to rebut her accusations that forecourt operators are exploiting the volatility in the wholesale fuel market by ramping up prices.
It follows an extraordinary sequence of events in which, around lunchtime, Balmer issued a statement saying he was pulling out of the meeing because of “inflamatory language” by ministers leading to incidents of retail staff being abused by members of the public.
However, after receiving assurances that the discussion with Reeves, energy secretary Ed Miliband, and representatives of consumer watchdog the CMA will be off the record, Balmer says he is now happy to attend.
The political temperature over fuel prices has been rising in recent days as Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has severely restricted shipments of oil from the Gulf countries causing a hike in the wholesale price of petrol.
Yesterday, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) put forecourts “on notice” that it is stepping up monitoring of petrol and diesel prices.
That followed Rachel Reeves telling the House of Commons on Tuesday (March 10) of reports of fuel being sold at 180ppl, and warned that the government will “not tolerate price gouging”.
She said at the time: “Let me be absolutely clear. I will not tolerate any company exploiting the current crisis to make excess profits at the consumer’s expense.”
According to RAC Fuel Watch data yesterday, average unleaded petrol prices had risen by 7p to 140p a litre, and by 16p to 158p on diesel in under two weeks – adding between £4 and £8 to the cost of filling up a family car.
Criticism has been levelled against forecourt operators for selling fuel bought before the conflict at higher prices, but this does not take into account the individual buying practices of forecourt owners, with some purchasing fuel on a daily basis and as a result having to instantly pass on increased wholesale costs.
This afternoon’s meeting brings together representatives from the Top 50 Indies, supermarkets, oil companies and trade associations, with the CMA, which is also responsible for overseeing the Fuel Finder programme.
Fuel Finder, which is designed to make fuel prices more transparent by requiring operators to report prices within 30 minutes of making a change, has been beset with problems since missing its launch date of December 18.
Operators have complained of difficulties accessing the system which finally went live in January, with reports of codes to activate registration not working or arriving late. And this month, the site was inaccessible for 12 hours without prior warning to firms trying to access the data.
In her invitation to the meeting at 11 Downing Street, Reeves said: “This roundtable will be an opportunity to discuss the Fuel Finder programme and its importance for supporting the government’s cost of living agenda”. Also, the group will discuss “what can be done to support the adoption of the system at forecourt level”.
Meanwhile, businesses providing consumer apps to share the Fuel Finder data are complaining that they still have issues with the way in which it is provided to them.
“The problem is that Fuel Finder has been introduced as a live testing environment, with the government using app and epos providers as a free consultancy service,” says one app provider. “All of the problems should have been ironed out before it went live. They have spent taxpayers’ money to turn out trash,” they add.
Although sites have been required to register by February 2, the government has said that it will give until May before it starts imposing fines for not complying. Currently, 1,000 of the UK’s 8,333 forecourts have still not registered on the scheme. And just under 20% of forecourts have failed to submit a price on Fuel Finder.
On Tuesday, Rachel Reeves contradicted earlier indications that the government was taking a non-confrontational approach of giving operators a period of grace to onboard Fuel Finder. She said that she will “not hesitate to call out retailers who fail to provide data to the Fuel Finder”.
Petrol Retailers Association executive director Gordon Balmer is looking forward to defending forecourt operators. He says: “We hope to engage constructively with the government to ensure that there is a clear understanding of how our industry works, and to counter any suggestions of profiteering.”
