Cost of living: Morrisons follows Tesco and Asda in announcing fuel price cut of 6p per litre
Morrisons is the latest supermarket to announce it is slashing the price of fuel, as households struggle to stay afloat amid a cost of living crisis.
The retailer said on Wednesday that it had cut the cost of unleaded and diesel by an average of six pence a litre over the last week at all of its 339 UK forecourts.
“It’s the summer holidays and we know how tough the current cost of living is for our customers. So we hope this fuel price reduction will help motorists to save money at this challenging time,” Andrew Ball, fuel operations manager at Morrisons, said.
The news follows a similar announcement from Tesco earlier this week, which also cut the price of petrol by 6.5p a litre and diesel by 4.5p a litre.
Sainsbury’s also lowered prices of petrol and diesel over the weekend, with a spokesperson stating pricing decisions were made “locally and competitively.”
“We are committed to offering motorists great value,” a Sainsbury’s spokesperson added.
Asda laid down the gauntlet with a recent price cut of nine pence for unleaded petrol and a seven pence cut for diesel.
Earlier this month, motoring groups were in uproar after the Competition and Markets Authority ruled that the government’s 5p fuel duty cut was reflected in pump prices.
The watchdog’s urgent review, ordered by business minister Kwasi Kwarteng, found an increase “refining spread” added 24p a litre to petrol and diesel over the last year, which led to pump prices rising despite the wholesale price falling.
The CMA said “on the whole” the policy, announced in the spring Budget, had worked, as most retailers passed the discount on to consumers immediately.
However, the AA group dubbed pump-price competition in the UK as “broken”.