Just four fuel retailers have passed on a petrol price cut since the Chancellor announced a 5p reduction on fuel duty on Wednesday.
Asda, Sainsbury’s and BP have announced 6p a litre cuts, while Morrisons said it would lower prices by 5p per litre.
Other retailers are facing mounting pressure to step up and lower their prices straight away too – although the fuel duty reduction represents just a “drop in the ocean”, according to motoring association the RAC.
In his Spring Statement, Chancellor Rishi Sunak pledged to cut fuel duty on petrol and diesel by 5p per litre from 6pm on Wednesday for the next year following weeks of record highs at the pumps.
Prior to Wednesday’s announcement, fuel duty was levied at 57.95p per litre for petrol and diesel, with 20% VAT charged on top of this. At the time, fuel was 1.67p - the 5p cut takes us back to fuel prices a week ago.
The Treasury said the fuel duty reduction would save motorists around £2.4billion in the next 12 months.
Asda was the first supermarket to announce it would lower prices, with Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and BP following shortly after.
The 6p drop includes a 1p reduction in VAT.
“The new prices will be implemented from this evening,” Asda said.
“This means that motorists will see unleaded move back below 160p per litre and diesel to 170p.”
Sainsbury’s also said it “will be passing on the price reduction to customers – cutting the price of a litre by 6p which includes a 1p reduction in VAT.”
The company’s CEO Simon Roberts said: “Sainsbury’s will continue to sell through stock it purchased while the higher fuel duty was in effect but is lowering the price for customers from tonight, so that they can benefit from the Chancellor’s announcement sooner.”
Morrisons said: “Following the Chancellor’s announcement regarding the 5p duty reduction on fuel, prices at Morrisons Petrol Station pumps will reduce by 5p at 6pm this evening [Wednesday}.”
BP said the 6p saving “will be passed on at the sites we operate in line with the Chancellor’s announcement”.
Fuel campaigners said they were “pleased” Mr Sunak was offering motorists some respite but insisted the fuel cut represented a “drop in the ocean”.
“With petrol and diesel prices breaking records almost daily, and the cost to fill up a petrol car at over £92 and a diesel at nearly £100, we’re pleased to see the Chancellor has given drivers some much-needed relief at the pumps, but the reality is that a 5p cut in duty is something of a drop in the ocean,” said RAC head of policy Nicholas Lyes.
“In reality, reducing it by 5p will only take prices back to where they were just over a week ago.
He added: “There’s also a very real risk retailers could just absorb some or all of the duty cut themselves by not lowering their prices. If this proves to be the case it will be dire for drivers. It also wouldn’t be totally unexpected based on the biggest retailers not reducing their prices late last year when the oil price fell sharply.”
The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) described Mr Sunak’s fuel duty cut as “a step in the right direction”, but said it did not “go far enough to ease the burden on motorists”.
PRA boss Gordon Balmer said: “Retailers are holding duty-paid stock which will be sold before the fuel duty cuts come in. To give the motorist an immediate discount at the pumps, the Chancellor would have to backdate the fuel duty cut to 1 March.”
Meanwhile, the Resolution Foundation, a living standards think tank, warned the lack of support for low-income families in the Chancellor's spring statement leaves more than one million Britons on the verge of "absolute poverty".
Is the 5p fuel tax cut enough? Let us know in the comments section below
Rishi Sunak's measures represented a "big but poorly targeted policy package" which does not do enough to aid the families who have been hit the hardest by the cost-of-living crisis, the foundation said.
In his Commons statement, Mr Sunak also announced an increase in the threshold at which people pay National Insurance contributions, benefiting around 30million workers with a tax cut worth more than £330.
He promised further support in 2024 with a pledge to cut the basic rate of income tax from 20p in the pound to 19p.
However, analysis from the Resolution Foundation said Mr Sunak's measures do not meet the scale of the cost-of-living squeeze, with 1.3 million Britons set to fall below the poverty line next year, including 500,000 children - the first time Britain has seen such a rise outside of a recession.
It also determined that only one-in-eight workers will actually see their tax bills fall by the end of the parliament.
Resolution Foundation's analysis states: "Considering all income tax changes to thresholds and rates announced by Rishi Sunak, only those earning between £49,100 and £50,300 will actually pay less income tax in 2024-25, and only those earning between £11,000 and £13,500 will pay less tax and National Insurance.
"Of the 31million people in work, around 27million (seven-in-eight workers) will pay more in income tax and (National Insurance) in 2024-25."
"Whether that will be sustainable in the face of huge income falls to come remains to be seen."
Delyth Jones, 43, who lives in Deiniolen in Wales, said she is concerned about the "bigger picture" and how the cost of fuel will impact on food prices.
The single mother, who has two teenage children and is the unpaid carer and guardian of her five-year-old son, said the family may have to give up luxuries like socialising on weekends.
Commenting on fuel duty being cut by 5p, Ms Jones told the PA news agency: "I think it's gone up a lot more than that over the last few weeks anyway.
"That's made a huge difference for me because I have to take my daughter to college, my son to work, and then I'm a carer for my youngest so I have to cart him here, there and everywhere as well."
She said she has had to buy a lot more petrol over the last couple of weeks, adding: "That's obviously worrying me.
"When it comes to the weekend maybe we won't be able to do the social stuff that we used to do because the cost of everything is going up.
"There's not going to be that much excess money to do the nice things with.
"And obviously there's shopping, and I'm just worried about the impact because the petrol thing is going to affect the groceries isn't it... I think it just has a knock-on effect on everything.
"Supermarkets... it's going to have an effect on them, which means on the milk and things like that, the farmers' costs.
"I think about the bigger picture and I just think, wow, over the next few weeks what else is going to go up and how are we going to fit that into our budget?"
