A poll of over 2,000 adults has found that 78% of people think the forthcoming fuel duty increase will see food prices rise.
The research comes from the Road Haulage Association which, alongside the Petrol Retailers Association, is lobbying the Chancellor ahead of next month’s Budget to scrap the planned end to the 5ppl fuel-duty discount.
At present the discount, introduced in 2022 to mitigate rising petrol and diesel costs caused by the Ukrainian conflict, is set to be wound down by 3p on January, 1 then 2p on March 1.
Survey work by the RHA indicates most voters are not only against the duty increase, with 80% wanting the tax frozen or increased, but expect any rise to impact the cost of groceries, with the supermarket sector almost entirely dependent on diesel trucks to get food to stores.
Of the 2,147 UK adults polled by the industry body, 50% want fuel duty decreased, with 30% saying it should remain at its current 52.95ppl level.
The RHA’s managing director, Richard Smith, cautions that “almost everything on supermarket shelves got there on a lorry. When diesel goes up that cost has nowhere to go but on to the price of goods”.
Smith adds: “Scrapping the planned fuel duty rises is the cheapest inflation control this Government has.”
The RHA’s warnings echo those issued by the PRA earlier this month, with executive director Gordon Balmer saying that an increase to fuel duty would “create widespread upward inflationary pressure on the economy” and lead to the “pushing up the price of food, goods and services”.
