An independent retailer, who hit the headlines at the start of the year after cutting petrol down to 99.7ppl, has gained more publicity after cutting diesel to 99.7ppl.

Velautham Sarveswaran, who runs three Harvest-branded sites in the Midlands with his wife, Ananthi, cut prices at his sites in Birmingham, Redditch and Walsall, and is now offering both unleaded petrol and diesel at 99.7ppl.

He said his sites have all built a reputation for the cheapest fuel in their area and he hoped to hold the prices for about the next three weeks.

He said: “I wanted to give people an early Christmas present and thank them for their custom.”

RAC Fuel Watch spokesman Simon Williams commented: “It’s great that motorists in the Midlands are the first in the country to benefit from £1 a litre diesel and it’s also good to see that it’s an independent filling station that’s beaten the supermarkets to this landmark.

“The supermarkets had the scope to cut diesel to below £1 a litre a week ago as the wholesale price has been low enough for this to happen for the last two weeks. Maybe this will be the spark they finally need to make the move and treat diesel drivers to a Christmas fill-up at under £1 a litre for the first time since the spring of 2009.

“As the supermarkets pride themselves on providing the cheapest fuel in the country, it’s hard to understand why they’ve held back on reducing diesel pump prices faster and more substantially. The only plausible explanation is that they are using the saving in the wholesale price of diesel to make up for the thin margin they are making by keeping petrol at sub-£1.”