Fuel Prices

Debate between Robert Halfon and Tim Farron

Tuesday 15th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Robert Halfon]

Let me carry on for a moment.

Big oil firms should not hide behind currency fluctuations. Statistics from the UK Petroleum Industry Association, which is funded by the major oil companies, show that in early 2010 the price of crude oil fell steadily, and yet retail fuel prices stayed high for months. Why was that? Ultimately, the only way to resolve this is through open-book accounting. If the big oil companies want to prove their innocence, why do not they volunteer to publish the financial data?

I want to turn to the financial impacts. Since 2008, our consumption of diesel and petrol has declined, and the Government forecast that it will continue to plummet next year.

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

rose—

[Robert Halfon]

I give way to the president of the Liberal Democrats.

[Tim Farron]

My hon. Friend is being unfathomably but characteristically generous with his time. He says that consumption has gone down. Does he agree that consumption in rural areas has probably gone down as far as it is going to? Demand for petrol is so inelastic because people have only one way of getting to work, and that is by driving, even if they are on the minimum wage. This is now no longer an issue of environmental concern—it is about social justice.

[Robert Halfon]

I am pleased to say that I was also in the constituency of my hon. Friend for my holidays; it is such a wonderful part of the world. There is absolutely no doubt that fuel prices are threatening rural communities and preventing people from meeting and gathering together. Petrol is now so astronomically expensive that it is driving people off the roads and costing the Exchequer money.