Recently in Parliament, during an urgent question on road fuel pricing, Richard thanked the government for accepting the recommendations in a Competition and Markets Authority's (CMA) report but said he thought we were putting too much faith in price transparency to solve the market problem. The exchange can be watched at https://youtu.be/WUqp_3F7H_U
In its report, which can be read here, the CMA said a new fuel finder scheme would enable drivers access to live, station-by-station fuel prices on their phones or satnavs to help revitalise competition in the retail road fuel market.
Commenting afterwards, Richard Fuller MP said:
Many motorists feel that petrol prices have remained stubbornly high even as the price of oil has declined and the recent report from the Competition & Markets Authority gives some support to this view.
There is a particular worry with petrol sold by supermarkets but I worry that the main recommendation – a price comparison app – will not really prove effective in bringing prices down. We need one supermarket chain to see petrol pricing as a “loss leader” – a means to attract new customers to their stores – to get pricing moving down consistently.
The Minister replied that one of the recommendations in the report was to maintain a monitoring function, which will help provide market intelligence and data on which to base any further intervention if required.
The scheme would be made possible by new compulsory open data requirements and backed by a new ‘fuel monitor’ oversight body. The proposals are the key recommendations by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to UK government following its in-depth study into the road fuel market which found a weakening of competition in retail since 2019.
At present, retailers only provide information on prices at the petrol stations themselves, making it hard for drivers to compare prices and weakens competition. The fuel finder open data scheme would need statutory backing through legislation to ensure fuel retailers provide up-to-date pricing and make that available to drivers in an open and accessible format that can be easily used by third party apps such as satnavs or map apps, through a dedicated fuel finder app, or a combination of both.
The fuel monitor would monitor prices and margins on an ongoing basis and recommend further action if competition continues to weaken in the market. As the UK transitions to net-zero the demand for petrol and diesel will reduce. The fuel monitor will help us understand the impact of this on vulnerable consumers that remain dependent on petrol and diesel for longer, as well as those living in areas with limited choice of fuel stations.
The fuel monitor will ensure ongoing scrutiny of retail prices for petrol and diesel. We observed that following the interim update issued by the CMA in May 2023, the average price of road fuel fell in large parts of the UK. Over the last year, the CMA has investigated the road fuel market in detail and reached the conclusion that competition is not working well and greater transparency in pricing is needed to improve consumer confidence and bring down prices for drivers.
