Another round of supermarket fuel price cuts was announced this week. Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s all cut the price of diesel by 2p a litre, the day after the Chancellor’s Summer Budget revealed there would be no increases in fuel duty as some had feared.

The supermarket announcements follow last week’s Fuel Watch report by the RAC in which it described the price of diesel as the ‘elephant in the room’, with wholesale prices 1ppl to 3ppl lower than petrol, yet the average price of a litre of diesel is 120ppl, compared to 117ppl for petrol.

Commenting on the price cuts, Avishai Moor, Sainsbury’s head of fuel, said: “This is another great piece of news for our customers today, following the announcement that fuel duty will remain at the same level this year. Fuel can be a big expense, so we’re proud to be offering our customers great value for money when they fill up with Sainsbury’s.”

And as a result of Asda’s national price cap, motorists will no longer pay more than 114.7ppl for either unleaded or diesel.

Simon Williams, fuel spokesman for the RAC, said that wholesale diesel prices have been significantly lower than petrol throughout June, and argued that there was scope for at least a 5ppl cut in the price of diesel.

“We need greater transparency and a fairer pricing model for both petrol and diesel and this is likely to spell the end of the focus on petrol prices alone,” he added.