Hauliers take fuel duty demands to Downing Street 

Richard Smith, RHA managing director, with Sarah Evans MP outside 11 Downing Street

The Road Haulage Association (RHA) delivered an open letter to the chancellor Rachel Reeves at 11 Downing Street this week signed by more than 470 transport operators, reiterating the call for plans to scrap forthcoming increases in fuel duty.

The existing 5p temporary cut introduced by the previous government is currently planned to be reversed in a three-phase process. In September, duty will rise by 1p per litre, then by 2p in December and a further 2p in March. The government pledged in March to keep the situation under review in light of ongoing tensions in the Middle East, but no further announcement has yet been forthcoming.

“On behalf of HGV, coach and van operators, alongside all other road users and the entire UK economy, we ask you to end the planned increases in fuel duty scheduled to start in September 2026,” said the open letter.

“A 5p cut was introduced in 2022 as a result of international conflicts sending fuel prices soaring. We are now in the same situation four years later, and it is the wrong time to reverse those cuts now.

“Higher prices for fuel drives up prices for everyday consumers and pushes businesses and employers to the brink. We cannot afford another inflation crisis caused by the cost of fuel.”

The hauliers’ plea comes in the wake of rising diesel costs that, as of this week, stood at around 34 per cent higher than the day prior to the outbreak of hostilities in Iran. Yesterday, the RAC Foundation reported average diesel pump prices of 191.3 pence per litre. The average pump price for petrol stood at 158.1p.

Richard Smith, the RHA’s managing director, said: ‘We need the chancellor to act now. Commercial vehicles move around 80 per cent of Britain’s goods and generate more than a third of fuel duty revenues. Yet they are being hit hardest by rising fuel costs.

“These increases are inflationary, pushing up the cost of everything from food to construction.

‘This letter is clear. We’re calling on the chancellor to scrap planned fuel duty increases.

“We also urge the government to introduce an essential user rebate for haulage, coach and van operators to keep costs down.

“Other countries already back their transport sectors in this way. It’s time the UK did the same.”

Sarah Edwards, the MP for Tamworth, accompanied the RHA’s representatives to Downing Street. She commented: “Following my recent campaigning on the price of fuel, I was delighted to join the RHA’s managing director, Richard Smith in supporting their open letter to the chancellor calling for a fuel duty freeze.

“I will always support local hauliers who want their businesses not just to survive but prosper.”

Meanwhile, the RHA is continuing to encourage fleet operators to write to their local MPs, calling on them to back its proposed essential user rebate.