FairFuelUK's Reaction to the Autumn Statement

Quentin Willson of FairFuelUK said: "FairFuelUK has worked tirelessly to convince MPs and Ministers that the 3p rise would be enormously damaging to the economic recovery. To their credit the treasury and the Chancellor have engaged constructively and have made the right decision. The cancellation of the 3p rise completely is a welcome surprise, it would have cost 35,000 jobs and hit growth. Fantastic News but the fight for fairer fuel pricing goes on for the sake of hard pressed businesses, the public and to stimulate growth in the economy"

85% of motorists say the price of fuel is having a negative impact on their social lives.

• 85% people say the price of fuel has had a negative impact on their social life
• 3/4 say they are using their car less now than they were a year ago
• 6% of motorists say they have slept in their car to avoid the expense of commuting to work
• 2.9 million ‘ghost cars’ in the UK are used less than once a week

Motorists are being forced to make tough choices and big sacrifices in an effort to save money and reduce the impact of the price of fuel on their lives. A joint survey of more than 9,000 people by the RAC and FairFuelUK has revealed three quarters of motorists are using their car less today than a year ago and they are taking some extreme measures to cut back on the miles they travel.  Quentin Willson, national spokesman for FairFuelUK said, "These results prove that unless the Chancellor scraps the 3p rise on Wednesday next week he’ll be delivering a cruel Christmas and an impoverished New Year to millions of families and tens of thousands of UK businesses. As a society we’ve never seen this sort of financial pressure put on personal mobility.”

RAC technical director David Bizley said:

1. "Our members have been telling us for a long time that the cost of motoring is getting too much to stomach and having a big impact on their lives but it has now reached crisis point with motorists taking extreme steps to cope with the high price of fuel.
2. "At Christmas time it is particularly hard to accept that people are cutting back on family trips and social gatherings in an effort to save money. We strongly urge the Chancellor to take a decisive step this week by scrapping the 3p fuel duty increase planned for January 2013. Fuel duty in Britain is the highest in Europe and now represents 60% of the price we pay at the pump. Motorists are contributing £45 billion to the Treasury every year, but only a fraction is going to improve the quality of the road network.
3. "It is motorists and families living in rural areas that are hit the hardest as they are doubly reliant on their cars to get to work, school and maintain family contacts. Access to supermarket filling stations, where prices are lowest, and public transport alternatives which are not always available to those living in remote areas and who are often on lower wages to begin with.
4. "People are also telling us that they are facing tough choices about their careers with some now weighing up whether it is actually affordable to commute to work. And we had a significant number of pensioners telling us that with a fixed income there was nothing they can do but simply cut out social and non-essential trips altogether and even stopping doing voluntary work.”

Key findings from the "Social Impact of fuel prices survey" – November 2012

Fuelling up:

• 3/4 motorists live within five miles of a supermarket with a fuel station
• 7% live 10 miles or further from a supermarket with a fuel station
• 68% say that they fill-up a supermarket fuel stations

  3/4 say that price is the primary factor in choice of where to fill-up
  39% say that loyalty points are a factor in their choice
  13% of motorists fill-up wherever they travel

• 25% of motorists will travel up to 10 miles for cheap fuel, 9% will travel up to 15 miles, and 6% will travel over 15 miles
• 39% of motorists fill-up once a week, 35% fill up once a fortnight, 1% fill up every day
• 3/5 of motorists fill up their fuel tank every time they visit a fuel station
• 4% pay over £100 to fill up their vehicle – on average motorists pay £62.17 to fill up their tank

Cutting down miles:

• 85% said the price of fuel has had a negative impact on their social life
• 3/4 of motorists are travelling less miles than a year ago to save money, 14% are travelling more
• 17% have cut out family days out and holidays
• 44% have cut back on social occasions
• 7% have cut out shopping trips

Work and cutting miles:

• Almost half of respondents (48%) drive to work – 19% use their car for work
• 3% consider they would be better off on benefits after accounting for the cost of their weekly commute
• 8% have considered changing their jobs to reduce their commute
• 7% have considered quitting their job to save money on their commute
• 1.5% have actually quit their job
• 1% are now car sharing to save money
• 4% are working from home more to save on the weekly fuel bill

Extreme measures:

To save money on their commute to work:

• 3% have camped near work
• 6% have slept in their car
• 1% have slept in the office
• 11% stay with friends
• Four respondents said they have slept rough

The RAC estimates there are now 2.9 million ‘ghost cars’ in the UK which are being used less than once a week. See blog: http://www.fairfueluk.com/quentins_blog.php?entry_id=1354136328. In an earlier survey in November of 1,300 motorists one in seven respondents (14%) said their household owned a car which was only used occasionally, with the North East (22%) and London (20%) the areas where this was most common, probably due to their extensive public transport networks. Amazingly, one third of these unused cars are only one to two years old, meaning they are rapidly depreciating in value while they sit idle on the driveway.

We've just posted to 647 MPs a report (see photo of cover) from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) that shows over 35,000 jobs will be lost in the UK economy if the 3p Fuel Duty rise goes ahead in January. Not only that, the report shows that growth will be hit by negative 0.1% of GDP. This effect on growth means that the Treasury won’t collect the revenue it is expecting from the rise. You can see the report at http://www.fairfueluk.com/niesr_report.html

This report also included the following letter from me.

We’re just days away from the Autumn Statement. We are increasingly hopeful that we will see the 3p Fuel Duty hike scrapped when the Chancellor addresses the House of Commons on 5^th December. All the signs are encouraging but we still need to do everything we possibly can in these last few days to keep up the political and media pressure. 

We’re just days away from the Autumn Statement. 

We are increasingly hopeful that we will see the 3p Fuel Duty hike scrapped when the Chancellor addresses the House of Commons on 5^th December. All the signs are encouraging but we still need to do everything we possibly can in these last few days to keep up the political and media pressure. 

To that end, we’re asking if you would help us by taking part in a very quick poll of how high fuel prices are actually affecting you. We met a group of influential MPs only last week (see photo) and they believe that the results of such a poll could be critical in the run up to the Autumn Statement, even at this late stage. 

The poll is hosted by one of our main backers – the RAC. The link that will take you to it is http://www.rac.co.uk/social-impact-of-fuel-prices.aspx