Asda has announced it has cut fuel prices amid accusations that the “big four” supermarkets have kept the cost artificially high in recent weeks. Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Asda – along with several other suppliers – have faced criticism for failing to reduce their prices in line with falling wholesale prices since the record highs of early July.
But Asda said on Friday that it had cut the cost of unleaded by 5p per litre and diesel by 3p per litre. Drivers will now pay on average 174p per litre for unleaded and 185p per litre for diesel when filling up at Asda’s 323 petrol stations across the UK.
Asda had already cut prices by 4p per litre earlier this week, meaning the supermarket has now reduced fuel prices by 9p per litre on unleaded and 7p per litre on diesel since Monday. Sainsbury’s has now told the PA news agency that it also plans to reduce prices, although they will vary because of local considerations.
Morrisons claimed it had been lowering prices this week and would be making more cuts this morning (Saturday, July 30), although the supermarket would not announce a blanket cut. A spokesman said: “We are continuing to lower our prices as we endeavour to be amongst the cheapest in the areas we operate.”
It came after the RAC accused the big four supermarkets of mirroring the UK average when they would usually be around 4p cheaper. It said the cost of unleaded petrol at the retailers should have come down by 16p since July’s record highs to the 174p-per-litre mark, yet on average they had only brought the price of a litre down by 5.5p.
The RAC also said diesel prices had come down only by 4p per litre since the all-time highs but supermarkets needed to reduce them by another 6p per litre to bring the average price down to 189p per litre.
RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said Asda cutting its prices to an average of 174p per litre for unleaded and 185p per litre for diesel should now put pressure on other retailers to reduce their prices. However, he said this was coming “too late” and that motorists had been losing out for weeks.
“The wholesale price of petrol has fallen significantly over the last seven weeks," he said. “This means hard-pressed motorists have been losing out while retailers enjoyed 20p-a-litre margins – much higher than normal.”
AA fuel price spokesman Luke Bosdet welcomed the move by Asda. “Asda’s price move is impressive, in effect cutting 10p a litre off the UK average price of petrol," he said. “That’s potentially a fiver off a tank for those filling up this weekend, compared to the artificially high prices on too many major retailer forecourts and in too many towns.”
Tesco was contacted for comment.
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