Preet Kaur Gill, MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, has called on government to act over the spiralling cost of living crisis with an emergency budget, as figures show the impact of soaring petrol prices on families across Quinton, Harborne, Edgbaston and Bartley Green.
New analysis by Labour has revealed that families in Birmingham and across the country will fork out an extra £10bn on petrol, compared to just this time last year.
The Chancellor made a 5p fuel duty cut the centrepiece of his plan to tackle the cost-of-living. However, it has been entirely overshadowed by skyrocketing fuel costs that have increased prices by as much as 47p/litre in the last year, according to the RAC.
The figures come as oil and gas producers, including Shell and BP, took in billions in profits, with BP hailing “more money than we know what to do with”.
Labour today reiterated its call on the government to bring forward an emergency budget to tackle the Tory cost of living crisis. This would prioritise five measures including with a one-off windfall tax on the soaring profits of oil and gas producers to help households through the crisis with up to £600 in support. Labour would also ramp up home insulation, scrap the unfair National Insurance hike, and provide support for struggling businesses.
Commenting Preet Kaur Gill said: “This is a savage extra cost for working people, particularly given the tax hike to national insurance that people across our city will be facing this week as they open their pay packets. It is outrageous that the Chancellor has raised taxes 15 times – costing families over £1000 this year.
“The Conservative Government needs to set out an emergency budget to tackle their cost-of-living crisis and support Labour’s call that would put money back in the pockets of working people.
“Labour’s plan would help households through this crisis with up to £600 cut off energy bills and turbocharge our transition to clean transport so never again are the British people left so exposed to unstable foreign oil.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
Labour has called on the government to bring forwarded an emergency budget – and prioritise five measures that could be enacted now, to make a material difference to the millions of pensioners and working people feeling the crunch from the crisis:
Put a windfall tax on oil and gas producers to cut home energy bills: Bring in a one-off windfall tax on oil and gas producer profits, to cut household bills by up to £600, including through a VAT cut on home energy bills and an increase and expansion of the Warm Homes Discount.
Provide support for struggling businesses: Labour would cut taxes for businesses by giving SMEs a discount on their business rates bill worth up to £5,700 this year, funded by a tax on the online giants. We’d also bring in a £600 million contingency fund, raised by the windfall tax on oil and gas producer profits, for those industries and businesses struggling the most with rising bills like steel and other energy-intensive firms.
Spike the hike: Scrap the National Insurance hike which this government has introduced in the midst of a cost of living crisis.
Insulate homes: Commit to a rapid ramp up of home upgrades with a clear target to meet by the end of the year, to make them more energy efficient and cheaper to heat, saving households £400 on average every year.
Stop the waste: Allow the National Crime Agency to investigate the £11.8 billion of taxpayer funds lost to fraud and error, so no more taxpayer money is flushed down the drain.
Diesel car:
The cost of a litre of diesel has risen by £0.47p over the past year according to Government and RAC data (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/weekly-road-fuel-prices; https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/fuel-watch/)
There are 1.2 cars per household in the UK, and 12,499,187 diesel cars in the United Kingdom and the average car travels 6,800 miles: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/veh02-licensed-cars; https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/cheap-car-insurance/number-cars-great-britain#:~:text=How%20many%20cars%20are%20there%20per%20household%20UK%3F,per%20household%20in%20the%20UK; https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/nts09-vehicle-mileage-and-occupancy
Based on the MPG of an average family car of 43 for diesel, this means on average a car user uses 719 litres of fuel in a year: https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/cheap-car-insurance/average-mpg#:~:text=The%20average%20UK%20car%20drives,the%20equivalent%20of%20132%20MPGe
With the price of diesel increasing by £0.47p per litre 19 April 2021 to 21 April 2022, the rise in fuel prices over the last year leaves a driver using their facing £337 in extra petrol costs over a year (£928 in March 2021; £1265 in April 2022 = £337).
That is an extra £4.2bn for households on diesel.
Diesel was 170.09 on 10 March 2022.
Petrol car:
The cost of a litre of unleaded petrol has risen by £0.37p over the past year according to Government and RAC data (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/weekly-road-fuel-prices)
1.25 on 19 April 2021 to 1.62 on 21 April 2022 https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/fuel-watch/
There are 1.2 cars per household in the UK, and 19,097,402 petrol cars and the average car travels 6,800 miles in a year: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/veh02-licensed-cars; https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/cheap-car-insurance/number-cars-great-britain#:~:text=How%20many%20cars%20are%20there%20per%20household%20UK%3F,per%20household%20in%20the%20UK; https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/nts09-vehicle-mileage-and-occupancy
Based on the MPG of an average petrol family car of 36, this means on average a household uses 859.2 litres of fuel in a year https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/cheap-car-insurance/average-mpg#:~:text=The%20average%20UK%20car%20drives,the%20equivalent%20of%20132%20MPGe
With the price of petrol increasing by £0.37p per litre April 2021 to April 2022, the rise in fuel prices over the last year leaves a driver using their facing £318 in extra petrol costs over a year. (£1074 in March 2021; £1392 = £318)
That is an extra £6bn for households on petrol.
Car mileage statistics, https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/nts09-vehicle-mileage-and-occupancy
MPG of average family car, https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/cheap-car-insurance/average-mpg#:~:text=The%20average%20UK%20car%20drives,the%20equivalent%20of%20132%20MPGe.
Number of cars per household: https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/cheap-car-insurance/number-cars-great-britain#:~:text=How%20many%20cars%20are%20there%20per%20household%20UK%3F,per%20household%20in%20the%20UK.
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