5.12.2012 Chancellor scraps planned 3p rise in duty

In today's Autumn Statement, the Chancellor has scrapped the scheduled the 3p per litre increase in fuel duty, originally due to come into force in January 2013.

As we highlighted last month, in considering a possible second delay of the increase rise in fuel duty, the Chancellor, George Osborne, has taken the bold step of completely cancelling the planned increase in response to increasing pressure on household budgets.

This goes much further than the call from Rachel Reeves, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, for a "three-month window" to ease the costs of motoring.

It will also go some way to limiting travel cost for commuters as Reeves also noted: "If the government can find the money to postpone [the increase] all the better because it is a big pressure...you've also got bus and train fares going up in January too... there's an issue about whether work pays for a lot of low-paid workers."

Autumn Statement 2012