The Petition of residents of the UK,
Declares that there are currently proposals to extend the rural fuel rebate scheme to Cornwall, initially by five pence per litre.
The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government and the European Commission to fully back the plan and to introduce it as soon as they can.
And the Petitioners remain, etc.—[Presented by Andrew George, Official Report, 4 December 2013; Vol. 571, c. 1050 .]
[P001307]
Observations from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Treasury, received 15 August 2014:
The Government thank the Member for St Ives (Andrew George) for his petition regarding the rural fuel duty rebate scheme, and apologises for the administrative errors which have led to this extremely delayed response.
In August 201 3, the Government announced their intention to seek permission from the European Commission to extend the island rural fuel rebate scheme to remote rural areas of the UK mainland. Following this announcement, the Government launched a Call for Information inviting remote rural service stations in a number of areas across the UK to submit data on their pump prices. However, as not all retailers were able to provide this information in the time available, the Government launched a supplementary Call for Information in November 201 3, which closed in December.
The Government used the data received through both Calls for Information, as well as data previously held by HMRC, to determine the list of areas to be included in the application to the European Commission, which was submitted in January 2014.
In order to make the strongest possible case to the European Commission, the Government considered that the areas selected should experience similar characteristics to the islands in the current rural fuel rebate scheme. In particular, the Government considered it was necessary to demonstrate that high prices in the areas selected are due to objective factors such as remoteness and transport costs. The selection criteria used are set out below:
1. Pump Price Threshold: Pump prices in selected areas are consistently more expensive than the lowest pump price on the islands in the existing scheme.
2. Cost of Transporting Fuel: Shortlisted areas are over 100 miles by road from the nearest refinery, so transport costs are likely to be substantially above average in these areas.
3. Population Density: The population density of included areas is no higher than any island in the current scheme.
The Government are aware that you will be disappointed that areas in West Cornwall did not make the final list, but would like to reassure you of their commitment to support rural areas with the price of fuel. At Autumn Statement 2013, the Government cancelled the fuel duty increase that was planned for 1 September 2014, freezing fuel duty for the remainder of parliament. As a result of this Government’s action on fuel duty since 2011, pump prices are currently 16ppl (pence per litre) lower than under the previous Government’s fuel duty plans, and will be nearly 20ppl lower by the end of the Parliament.