But. Anyone got an idea what the price would be today if the freeze hadn't been for the last few years.
No agenda, just wondering.
And cba to work it out for myself.
The average price of a litre of unleaded last week was 131p, so that works out at just over 51p before duty and VAT. Osborne scrapped a planned 4p rise on duty from 58.95p/litre to 62.95p/litre (a 6.7% increase) and cut a penny instead, which is where it's been ever since.
<plays with Excel for a few minutes>
If we assume that Osborne went ahead with the 4p rise in 2011 and duty had gone up by 4p a year thereafter, fuel duty would have risen to 90.95p/litre this year, giving a forecourt price of around 170p/litre.
If duty had gone up by a similar percentage each year after the planned rise in 2011, you'd be looking at around 175-182p/litre.
ETA - had the escalator been kept after 1999, with an inflation+6% rise each year:
Average annual inflation for period 1989 to 2018 = 2.58% (source:
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/inflation-cpi)
Fuel duty in 2000 was roughly 51p/litre.
Applying a 8.58% increase in duty year-on year from 2000 would put fuel duty at 224.4p/litre.
Assuming a pre-tax price of 51p/litre, you'd be looking at 330.5p/litre!