Supermarket Morrisons yesterday (WED) cut fuel prices by 2p a litre for diesel and 1p a litre for unleaded following a fall in wholesale costs.
Rival Sainsbury’s responded by saying it will cut its prices by the same amounts from today (THURS) at its 308 forecourts.
Prices at Morrisons’ Waterloo store now stand at 114p a litre for unleaded and 116p a litre for diesel while its Meltham site is selling unleaded at 115p and diesel at 117p.
The reductions, taking effect across 333 Morrisons filling stations UK-wide – makes Morrisons is the cheapest for fuel of the big four supermarkets in Huddersfield.
Asda at Bradford Road has unleaded at 114.7p a litre and diesel at 116.7p while Tesco at Viaduct Street has unleaded and diesel both priced at 114.9p. Sainsbury’s has unleaded at 114.9p and diesel at 116.9p.
Across the town, prices for unleaded range from about 113.7p to 115.9p with diesel ranging from 115.7p to 120.8p.
A spokesman for Morrisons said: “Fuel is one of the biggest weekly costs for families in the UK and Morrisons is determined to reduce prices quickly when it can. The recent strengthening of the pound against the dollar has helped to bring wholesale costs down slightly and Morrisons is now making filling up cheaper.”
Average pump prices for petrol and diesel both increased by more than 1p per litre across forecourts last month, RAC analysis found.
However, the price of a barrel of oil fell from a mid-month high of 55 US dollars (£43) to 49 dollars (£38) on April 27. This caused the wholesale price of petrol to end April 3.5p lower than the start of the month, with diesel dropping by 2.5p.
RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: “It is good news that this comes just as we were calling on retailers to cut prices at the pump but there is scope for them to go deeper.
“This is just the start and we are confident that the move will be followed by other supermarkets. It would be good if they surprised motorists with a bullish 3p a litre cut.
“This is long overdue as our April Fuel Watch figures indicate that prices should be coming down as we saw the wholesale price of petrol and diesel fall during last month by around 3p a litre.”
It costs an average of £65.37 to fill up a 55-litre petrol car – a 79p rise during April. The diesel equivalent is £66.29, up 64p.
