Retailers are “on the whole” passing on the government’s 5p fuel duty cut

By Suzanne Evans, Director, Political Insight

A review of petrol and diesel prices instigated by Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has found that retailers are “on the whole” passing on the government’s 5p fuel duty cut, however The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) says that because it has found "cause for concern in some parts" of the industry during its preliminary probe, it will continue its investigations. The CMA said it had discovered a sharp rise in prices once fuel had been processed by oil refineries, and "significant differences in price" between forecourts in "many rural and urban areas". The difference between crude oiland the wholesale price of petrol and diesel had tripled in the past year from 10p to nearly 35p per litre, the CMA said, and that increase accounts for over 40% - or 24p per litre - of the rise in fuel prices over the past year. "While there is no escaping the global pressures pushing up fuel prices, the growing gap between the oil price, and the wholesale price of petrol and diesel, is a cause for concern," said Sarah Cardell, general counsel at the CMA. "We now need to get to the bottom of whether there are legitimate reasons for this and, if not, what action can be taken to address it". The launch of a full market allows the CMA to use compulsory information gathering powers.
 
Money expert Martin Lewis and representatives from charities including Citizens Advice and StepChange met with CEO’s of OVO, British Gas, Octopus, E.ON, EDF and Shell on Friday, in an attempt to ways to support struggling customers with their energy bills this winter. They discussed how direct debits are set and a plan to work together to ask Ofgem to shift the burden away from standing charges. They also suggested creating a unified tool to help vulnerable households get the support they need and called for energy firms to provide more direct support to consumer debt charities.
 
Typical domestic energy bills in England, Wales and Scotland could reach £3,363 a year this winter, according to a forecast by consultancy Cornwall Insight. The typical bill at present is about £2,000 a year.
 
49% of Brits have now cut back on food purchases, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), buying less food than normal between 22 June and 3 July. In the previous survey, between 8 June and 19 June, only 43% of adults said that they were buying less food. Only 8% were cutting back when the monthly survey began in September 2021. 48% of shoppers also said they now needed to spend more than usual on their food shopping. The same proportion also said they had done at least one thing to reduce their energy bills. Overall, 91% of people said their cost of living had risen over the past month.
 
More than half (53%) of all bank branches in Scotland have been shut down since 2015, leaving half a million people dependent on cash cut off from accessing their money, according to a report from the Scottish Affairs Committee. “Access to cash across Scotland has been decimated in recent years, leading to Westminster committees investigating the issue multiple times,” Scottish Affairs Committee chair, Pete Wishart, said. “While the move to digital banking and payments has offered a method at which to do transactions that many of us enjoy, we cannot forget the 500,000 people in Scotland who rely on cash in their day-to-day lives,” he added. “With the cost of living crisis deepening, many people are using cash for budgeting. But what is deeply worrying is that bank branches are closing at a record rate with very limited research or thought conducted of the possible widespread implications”.
 
Tesco and Heinz have resolved a pricing row which led to some of Britain’s best known products disappear from the supermarket chain's shelves. Heinz beans and tomato ketchup are now back, but Tesco declined to say whether they would be going up in price because of the new agreement. Last month, the Daily Telegraph reported that Heinz had wanted to charge 30% more to supply some products. Tesco’s dispute with Mars over price hikes is ongoing.
 
Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) says the price of airline tickets will "without doubt" go up because fuel costs have risen because of the war in Ukraine and economies recovering from the Covid pandemic, and the cost will be passed on to travellers.
 
Flights from Birmingham Airport had the longest delays in 2021, analysis of Civil Aviation Authority data suggests. The BBC reports that planes left 12 minutes and 24 seconds late from Birmingham on average, followed by Southampton, Heathrow, Exeter and Aberdeen airports. Cancelled flights were not included in the ranking. A spokesman for the airport said that last year was "a dark time for aviation", adding that Birmingham Airport was reduced to just a quarter of normal staffing and capacity due to Covid. However, he also said that "massive air traffic reductions", meant that "flights taking off late were able to catch up en route". Birmingham is the UK's seventh busiest airport and hosts bases for airlines such as Jet2.com, Ryanair and Tui Airways.
 
Bus workers at Stagecoach Merseyside will take all-out strike action in a dispute over pay, the Unite union says. Unite said 370 bus workers based at the company's Gilmoss depot walked out this morning after Stagecoach failed to make an improved pay offer, and members will now take continuous strike action from Wednesday 20 July. Prior to this, there will be one-day strikes on Friday 15 and Monday 18. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "Stagecoach is a wealthy company - it can easily afford to pay fairly and Unite is determined to ensure that it does”.
 
Anglo-Australian miner BHP Group has failed to halt a £5bn lawsuit over a devastating dam failure in Brazil. The collapse of the Fundao tailings dam near the city of Mariana in November 2015 triggered one of Brazil's worst environmental disasters, killing 19 people and destroying villages as mining waste was swept downstream into the Atlantic ocean, Sharecast News reports. The dam was owned by Samarco, a joint venture between BHP and Brazil's Vale, the iron ore miner. 200,000 Brazilians launched legal action against BHP in London in November 2020, and on Friday the Court of Appeal ruled that the claim could proceed. The lawsuit is seeking compensation for individuals, municipalities and private businesses who were affected by the collapse. In a statement, BHP said it was considering whether to seek permission to appeal the judgement to the Supreme Court.
 
Thousands of leaked files have exposed how a $90m a year lobbying and PR campaign by Uber to disrupt Europe’s taxi industry won the backing of top politicians, including French President Emmanuel Macron and ex-EU digital commissioner Neelie Kroes. The files also reveal the ride app firm's former boss, Travis Kalanick, ordered the use of a "kill switch" to prevent raiding police from accessing computers. More than 124,000 records, including 83,000 emails and 1,000 other files involving conversations, spanning 2013 to 2017, were leaked to The Guardian, and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists as well as other media organisations, including the BBC Panorama programme. The show that when French taxi drivers were demonstrating against Uber, Macron was on first name terms with Kalanick, met him at least four times, and told him that he would reform laws in the firm's favour, intensifying his support when protests turned violent. Kroes, meanwhile, was in talks to join Uber before her term ended and then secretly lobbied for the firm, potentially breaching EU ethics rules. The records date from the time when Uber was one of the world's fastest-growing companies, but dogged by court cases, allegations of sexual harassment, and data breach scandals. Uber responded to the leak by saying its "past behaviour wasn't in line with present values" and it is a "different company" today. Kalanick was forced out by shareholders in 2017.
 
Ashley Alder, the CEO of Hong Kong's financial regulator, has been named as the next chair of the Financial Conduct Authority. HM Treasury confirmed that Alder, who has led the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong for 11 years, will replace interim chair Richard Lloyd when he takes up the role in January 2023. Lloyd was appointed in May, after the departure of former incumbent Charles Randell.
 
The number of permanent job appointments in the UK fell sharply last month, according to the June UK Report on Jobs, by KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation. The Permanent Placements Index fell to 54.8 from 59.2 in May, the seventh month in a row that growth has slowed. The Temporary Billings Index also nudged lower to 58.2 from 58.3 in May. A reading above 50.0 indicates growth, while one below it suggests contraction.
 
The US economy created 372,000 jobs in June, leaving unemployment close to record lows, The US Bureau of Labor Statistics said yesterday. Economists had expected the country to add only between 250,000 and 295,000 roles. However, analysts say this is a sign more US interest rate rises could be on the way. Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Global Investors, told the BBC: "Today's job number should soothe fears of an imminent recession, but it does nothing to relieve fears of considerable further Fed tightening. The job market remains severely tight, suggesting still-intense wage pressures." The unemployment rate stayed at 3.6% in June for the fourth month in a row.
 
Elon Musk is pulling out of his $44bn (£36bn) bid to buy Twitter, alleging multiple breaches of the agreement, notably that the social media firm has failed to provide enough information on the number of spam and fake accounts it hosts. However, Twitter is threatening court action to force Musk to buy the company.  "The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk," Twitter chairman Bret Taylor wrote in a tweet.
 
Macau closed all its casinos for the first time in more than two years on Monday after a coronavirus outbreak in the world's biggest gambling hub, the BBC reports. Authorities have ordered non-essential businesses, which includes over 30 casinos, to shut for a week. The city has recorded 1,526 Covid cases since the middle of June according to official figures. Gaming shares slipped on Monday over concerns of tougher rules in the Chinese special administrative region. Around 19,000 people have been put in mandatory quarantine as the city tackles its “worst” Covid-19 outbreak since early 2020.

Why Media is an award-winning design, marketing, digital communications and PR agency offering tailored solutions to companies on a global scale. We have extensive experience in delivering design and marketing services to a spectrum of companies including professional services, property companies, financial institutions and shopping centres. We have offices in London UK, Hertford UK, Finestrat ES & Brescia IT.

Marketing Contact

Name:  Claire White
E-Mail:  claire@whymedia.com
Telephone:  01992 586 507