Fillet at the pumps instead! Fisherman tops up boat at BP garage after red diesel bill nearly DOUBLES – amid fury as average price of petrol hits 167p and diesel reaches 179p per litre despite FALLING cost of wholesale fuel and oil
- Chris Attenborough, of Herne Bay, Kent, has said he can save up to 70p per litre if he uses white diesel
- Says that once he reclaims road duty and VAT, it is cheaper for him to fill up his boat at the petrol station
- Reveals the hike in the price of red diesel has more than doubled his fuel bill – rising from £80 a day to £170
- This has left him needing to catch more for a smaller cut – and he also warned of rises in the price of fish
A fisherman whose bill for rebated ‘red’ diesel nearly doubled has hauled his boat out of the water and transported it to a petrol station on a lorry to fill it with normal diesel so he can cut costs.
Seventh-generation fisherman Chris Attenborough, of Herne Bay, Kent, has said he can save up to 70p per litre if he uses white diesel, which is used by motorists across Britain to fill up their vehicles.
The 34-year-old said that once he reclaims road duty and VAT it is cheaper for him to fill up at the garage forecourt than wait for a delivery of red diesel to the harbour in Whitstable.
He said the hike in the price of red diesel has more than doubled his fuel bill – rising from £80 a day to £170. This has left him needing to catch more for a smaller cut – and he also warned of an inevitable rise in the price of fish.
It comes as average pump prices again hit new record highs today amid growing speculation that Chancellor Rishi Sunak is preparing to slash fuel duty. The average price of a litre of fuel at UK forecourts yesterday was 167p for petrol and 179p for diesel. This is an increase of 18p for petrol and 26p for diesel over the past month.
Mr Attenborough said he fills his boat up with about 2,500 litres of diesel, which would be – following tax deductions – £2,250 for white diesel at 90p per litre, compared with £3,500 for red diesel valued at 140p.
Fisherman Chris Attenborough, 34, of Herne Bay, Kent, brings his boat to a petrol station on a lorry to top it up with diesel
Once he reclaims road duty and VAT, it is cheaper for him to fill up at the garage forecourt than wait for a delivery of red diesel
Mr Attenborough said the hike in the price of red diesel has more than doubled his fuel bill – rising from £80 a day to £170
He said: ‘It’s cheaper for me to get my boat craned out of the water, cut the mast down, put it on a lorry and bring it to the petrol station and fill it up with white diesel.
‘I can claim the VAT and road duty back so that works out at about 80p to 90p per litre depending on the day. Red diesel is normally about that price and we can claim back 11p of fuel duty so it should work out at the same price.
Sajid Javid vows to seek more help for vulnerable hit hardest by rising costs
Health Secretary Sajid Javid has pledged to push for more help for those with disabilities who are set to be hit the hardest by a dramatic rise in the cost of living.
Mr Javid said vulnerable groups are ‘some of the most important people in our society’ after he was told of the fears of those facing spiralling energy costs.
Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Mr Javid was told of individual circumstances by presenter Martin Lewis, who is also the founder of MoneySavingExpert.
Mr Lewis told the Cabinet minister of one woman whose husband used a ventilator, and whose energy costs were set to rise from around £180 a month to £270 in April and then £360 in October.
Reading out her comments, he said: ‘We don’t have the heating on and sit with blankets on us.’
Another woman, a single mother who is also disabled, said that although her disability benefits through Personal Independence Payments (PIP) had risen by £3 a month, her council tax had gone up by £5 a month while her electricity bill was set to double from £76 to £143.
Mr Javid said PIP payments were ‘regularly kept under review’, adding they ‘do often rise when we see rising inflation’.
But he said: ‘More broadly, of course, whether you’re disabled or not, there are other levels of support.’
Asked by Mr Lewis whether he would ‘champion’ those who were most vulnerable, he said: ‘Yes, absolutely.
‘Those are some of the most important people in our society and that is exactly the kind of people that we should do everything we can to support, including from my department and the NHS.’
But he said there was already ‘a huge amount of support’ which had been announced.
Earlier, Mr Javid refused to say whether he would support a cut in fuel duty after it was reported Chancellor Rishi Sunak would announce the measure in his spring statement on Wednesday.
Forecourt prices have risen sharply since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with global oil prices spiking.
The latest figures show average prices are a record 165.9p per litre for petrol and 177.3p per litre for diesel.
But Mr Javid told BBC Breakfast: ‘It’s a nice try but it’s not going to work because these are decisions for the Chancellor, and by the way, I’m not chancellor any more so I don’t have to answer these questions.’
He added: ‘When it comes to fuel duty, I think it’s important to reflect that – I think is it for 11 years now? – the Government has not increased fuel duty and that has led to a significant amount of support for motorists up and down the country.’
He told the programme: ‘It’s also important I think, at a time like this, to keep the economy strong and the fact that just last week, we heard that our unemployment rate is back down to 3.9%, which is one of the lowest rates that we’ve had.
‘It’s a pre-pandemic rate that also helps support the economy when people are in work.’
The Treasury has previously announced plans to offer financial support to the public through a £150 council tax rebate to some households and a repayable £200 saving on energy bills this year.
But Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer again called for windfall tax on oil and gas companies ‘who’ve made more profit than they expected’ in order to bring down the cost of energy bills.
On a visit to Stevenage, Sir Keir said ‘everybody is talking about how they’re feeling the pinch’ and he said the public ‘want to know that the Government is hearing them, that it’s going to do something about it’.
‘I think the simple things are a windfall tax on oil and gas companies who’ve made more profit than they expected, use that to bring down energy bills, and don’t introduce this new tax – national insurance tax. Wrong tax at the wrong time.
‘If the Government is going to actually do something about fuel duties, then, of course, we will support that because I think, for most people, this is such a difficult situation.’
‘But we are now getting quotes of between 130p and 160p per litre for red diesel, before duty is taken off.’
He added: ‘My fuel bill has gone up from £80 a day to £170 a day. It is going to put the price of fish up, which people can’t afford to buy already in this country, and it is going to have a major impact on our businesses.
‘We used to say we had to make £500-a-day to make it a viable business – to cover fuel, crew and the cost of the boat. Now, we’re talking £900-a-day.’
The fisherman says deliveries of red diesel can take up to three weeks as next day delivery is not guaranteed. He added: ‘How can you run a business not knowing when your fuel is going to turn up? They won’t give you an actual price until the day before delivery.’
Red diesel is used to operate off-road vehicles and machinery, such as fishing boats. It is meant to be low cost as it is taxed at a reduced duty rate (11.14p per litre) compared with white diesel available at petrol stations.
It is illegal to use red diesel on vehicles used on public roads and is marked with a red dye and chemical markers so it can be easily identified.
The price of diesel at the Dargate BP petrol station on the New Thanet Way on Friday at noon was 185.9p per litre.
For Mr Attenborough, this worked out at 90.7p per litre minus fuel duty (57.95p per litre) and the 20 per cent standard rate of VAT.
Another fisherman, Dave Ferris, 34, who is based in Queenborough on the Isle of Wight, told how he has to be ‘careful of the everyday viability of going to sea’ because of the price of red diesel.
He said: ‘It has increased by double what we need to catch. We will see the price of the fish go down for us and the price go up for the consumer.
‘We will be worse off financially, have to turnover more fish and more quotas we have to use up. The French government has already stepped in and offered subsidies to keep the fleet sustainable.
‘Our government has just sat on their hands and let things blow over.’
Another Kent fisherman, Jason Lengden, 42, said he is concerned for his livelihood and told how the current government subsidies for red diesel are ‘not enough’.
He said: ‘I was born a fisherman and I will die a fisherman. Whether I was born a successful fisherman and I die one is another question. I will stick at fishing until I starve, and whether I starve or not is in the hands of the government.’
It comes as average pump prices again hit new record highs today amid growing speculation that Chancellor Rishi Sunak is preparing to slash fuel duty.
Figures from data firm Experian Catalist show the average price of a litre of fuel at UK forecourts on Sunday was 167p for petrol and 179p for diesel.
These figures are an increase of 18p for petrol and 26p for diesel over the past month.
There are suggestions that Mr Sunak could announce a temporary cut in fuel duty of up to 5p per litre in Wednesday’s spring statement.
Gordon Balmer, executive director of the Petrol Retailers Association, which represents independent forecourts, insisted ‘we don’t want to charge’ record prices as ‘many of our members know their customers personally’.
Asked by Sky News if average prices could soon hit 200p per litre, he told Sky News that fluctuating wholesale costs mean pump prices ‘could go up to that level’.
He added: ‘We hope not, but it’s obviously very hard to predict at the moment.’
AA spokesman Luke Bosdet accused retailers of failing to pass on a recent fall in wholesale costs.
He said: ‘Wholesale petrol and diesel costs started to fall away dramatically on March 9, yet more than 10 days later prices at the pumps continue to set new records.
‘Even with oil rebounding to 110 US dollars a barrel at the end of last week, wholesale petrol on Friday was down 12p a litre on the March 8 peak.’
Mr Bosdet added that supermarkets are failing to spark industry-wide price cuts.
He said: ‘Pre-pandemic, the retailers would sit on lower-cost savings and wait for either Asda or Morrisons to announce price cuts, and then start to bring their prices down.
‘Now that that competitive thrust has largely gone, drivers and businesses in desperate need of the financial relief of lower pump prices must struggle on.’
RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said ‘the window for pump prices to come down appears to have been well and truly closed’ as both oil prices and wholesale fuel costs are rising.
Mr Attenborough said he fills his boat up with about 2,500 litres of diesel, which would be – following tax deductions – £2,250 for white diesel at 90p per litre, compared with £3,500 for red diesel valued at 140p
Kent fishermen Dave Ferris (left), 34, and Jason Lengden (right), 42, also spoke about their fears over the price of red diesel
There are suggestions that Rishi Sunak could announce a temporary cut in fuel duty of up to 5p per litre this Wednesday
He went on: ‘While there has been talk of a 5p cut in fuel duty, this may not be deep enough to make a real difference to drivers who are facing the highest ever costs to fill their tanks.
‘Ensuring all drivers fairly and fully benefit from the fuel duty cut depends entirely on retailers reducing their prices and not using it as an opportunity to take a greater profit on every litre they sell.
‘On the other hand, reducing VAT, which is a tax on a tax, prevents this from happening and would guarantee drivers benefit fully.’
Fuel duty is currently levied at 57.95p per litre for petrol and diesel, with VAT at 20 per cent charged on top of the total price.
Source: Read Full Article
