Fuel crisis in the countryside

Pick up any newspaper or listen to the news and the cost of living crisis is the headline every time and is at the forefront of everyone's mind. None more so than those living in rural areas who are really feeling the pinch and finding the pound in their pocket is not stretching as far as it was just a couple of months back. Between the energy fuel cap increase in April and the Ukraine war putting pressure on our fuel supplies, we have seen the cost of fuel rising at unprecedented rates and it is now at record highs. These price rises are being felt particularly harshly in rural areas where rural households have to travel more miles to access basic services and amenities and are more often off the gas grid network, reliant on alternative fuels, the price of which is not subject to the energy price cap.

We all know that rural households are more dependent on their car to access basic services and commute, but we were unclear how much more that was costing them. So, to really understand how these price rises were impacting rural communities we decided to investigate how much more rural households are having to pay to use their car compared to their urban neighbours. And to be honest the results shocked us.

Our research showed that rural households were having to spend nearly £800 a year more on fuel than people who live in urban areas and were paying up to 6p a litre more for their petrol than those living in towns and cities. Quite frankly this is just unsustainable for many rural households who are reliant upon their cars for everyday essentials.

Coupled with the fact that there are fewer petrol stations and less competition in rural areas, means that people in the countryside are more likely to struggle when filling up their cars because of the higher prices at rural filling stations, longer commuting distances, and travelling further to access services and amenities.

It goes without saying that the cost of fuel weighs far heavier on rural people and as you can see from our study, rural communities can pay up to 47% more in fuel costs to access basic services and amenities, and to commute. This research shows that the car is fast becoming an unaffordable necessity and it is time for the Government to act and introduce a fuel rebate scheme to remote rural areas in the UK.

This important study has led to a motion in Parliament calling for rural fuel duty to be cut immediately, this was put down by the newly elected Liberal Democrat MP for Tiverton and Honiton, Richard Foord, who used his first day in Parliament to urge the Government to take action.

We have continually called for support of the hard-pressed rural motorist and this research is a clear message to the Chancellor that he must act now to address the huge discrepancies between rural and urban fuel prices.

Become a member of the Countryside Alliance today and stand with us to help protect the rural way of life.