The Sun has helped motorists save £24BILLION over nine years by championing the fuel duty freeze

THE nine-year fuel duty freeze championed by The Sun has put an extra £24billion into consumers’ pockets, new research shows.

And a report adds that without the freeze launched by ex-Chancellor George Osborne in 2011, petrol prices would now be a staggering £1.50 a litre.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) said manufacturing costs, factory gate prices and freight rates are all also lower than they would otherwise have been if duty had gone up in line with CPI inflation.

Fuel duty has been frozen at 57.95p a litre ever since The Sun launched its ‘Keep it Down’ campaign in early 2011. Theresa May announced in October that it was being frozen again next April.

Campaigners FairFuelUK commissioned the CEBR research after Chancellor Philip Hammond moaned in September that freezing fuel duty had ‘cost’ the Treasury £46 billion in lost tax revenue.

But the CEBR argues to get this much tax, the Government would have had to put duty up in line with Labour’s hated ‘inflation escalator’ each year. This would have produced petrol prices almost a QUARTER higher than today’s average of £1.21 for unleaded.

The CEBR added the freeze had instead boosted spending elsewhere. It says: “The impact on household expenditure is not negligible either. We estimate that household expenditure is approximately £24 billion higher on a year basis than it would have been if the escalator had continued.”

The Government is also likely save £14 billion in a yearly in debt financing costs too over the longer term because of lower inflation.

Ex-Tory Minister Rob Halfon said: “This report shows that cutting fuel duty is fuel for the economy too. It means businesses have more money to spend on investment and employment. Hard working families have more cash in their pockets. Lower the taxes on petrol and diesel and you drive the engine of our economy.”

Howard Cox, co-founder of Fair Fuel UK, added: “Philip Hammond got a lot of criticism for freezing duty. But his move has actually made billions of pounds more for the Government because the public has all that much more to spend in our high streets.”

The figures come just days after the AA said paid £100 more for fuel in 2018 than 2017 because of higher prices at the forecourt.

Britain’s fuel duty rate of 57.95ppl is still one of the highest in the world despite the nine year freeze. German fuel duty is 50.5ppl, Australia 21ppl and the US an average across states of 10.4ppl.

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