Fuel price hikes will punish drivers outside of London, Jeremy Hunt is warned

DRIVERS living outside London will bear the brunt of a  fuel duty hike, Jeremy Hunt has been warned.

People in the East Midlands would be the hardest hit.

That’s because twice as much of their spending goes on filling up than those in the capital.

Motorists could be stung by a 12p hike in just weeks as the Chancellor refuses to commit to freezing the petrol levy for a 13th successive year and extending the 5p cut. 

But FairFuelUK boss Howard Cox said a fuel duty rise would “disastrously hurt drivers who live outside planet London” — and be a blow for Trending In The News’s Keep It Down campaign.

He blasted: “The capital’s fiscal decision-makers fail to grasp that there is much greater fuel usage per head in other parts of the country.”  

Analysis shows  2.2 per cent of a London family’s expenditure is spent at the petrol pumps.

But it’s 4.4 per cent for a household in the East Midlands, 4.3 per cent in the West Midlands and 4.3 per cent in the North East.

More than 90 per cent of all household spending on fuel is outside London, the FairFuel research shows.

The tax was also branded regressive as the poorest tenth of Brits spend a staggering 7 per cent on fuel compared to 3 per cent for the richest tenth.

Mr Hunt will make his final decision on a fuel duty hike in his March 15 Budget.