Gordon Brown has hinted that he may abandon plans to increase the price of fuel in the face of massive public criticism, it has been reported. The Government had planned to increase fuel duty by 2p a litre this autumn but has now a signalled a U-turn.
He did however warn that fuel prices would continue to rise for ‘years to come’ because of increasing demand in Asia. The duty rise has already been delayed from April to October, but Brown said any decision to defer it again would be for chancellor Alistair Darling.
He added: ‘It’s clearly a matter that will be looked at very carefully over the next few weeks.’ Meanwhile Darling has rejected calls from local authorities to be exempted from any rises because they are struggling to pay fuel bills.
Councils said that the yearly cost of running rubbish trucks and other vehicles had gone up from £541million to £780million in two years. Darling said such favouritism would be ‘hard to justify’.