The PRA is claiming credit after the Chancelllor George Osborne revealed that he had resisted the temptation to increase fuel duty in his Autumn Statement.

In his address to Parliament, the Chancellor said: “Despite falling fuel prices let me make this clear. We’ve cut fuel duty and we will keep it frozen.”

Following the recent dramatic fall in fuel prices the PRA had warned that he might take the opportunity to raise more revenue by raising fuel duty.

However, PRA chairman Brian Madderson revealed that after the PRA’s warning was publicised, he received a personal letter from the Chancellor on October 26 assuring him that duty rates would remain frozen, and that he would not try to use the Fair Fuel Stabiliser to raise them in his Autumn Statement.

Madderson said: “Yet again the PRA was well ahead of the game. I did not make the contents public until today because it was a personal letter.”

Fuel duty will stay frozen at the level it has been since 2011.