The planned fuel duty rises in January and March have been cancelled. Today’s Budget keeps duty on petrol and diesel at 52.95p per litre until 30 June 2027.
That gives drivers more certainty over the winter. It does not mean pump prices will fall today, or that they will stay level until summer. The price on a forecourt sign also responds to oil costs, exchange rates and retailers’ pricing decisions.
What changed in the Budget?
Before today, the government planned to start reversing the temporary 5p fuel duty cut in January 2027. The Budget now extends that cut to the end of June.
There is another date drivers should know. HMRC’s Budget rates table shows duty on petrol and diesel rising from 52.95p to 60.59p per litre on 1 July 2027. That is a 7.64p per litre increase in duty, combining the end of the temporary cut with an inflation-linked rise. It is the government’s announced plan and requires legislation.
If that entire increase were reflected in the pump price, VAT would bring the difference to about 9.2p per litre, or £4.58 on a 50-litre fill-up. That is an illustration of the tax change, not a prediction of next July’s pump price. Other costs could move in either direction before then.
What are drivers paying now?
At 14:04 GMT on 28 October, Fuel Finder’s UK Fuel Price Index showed an average reported price of 172.3p per litre for E10 petrol across 5,394 forecourts and 198.7p for B7 diesel across 4,178. Those are snapshots of accepted prices from the previous 14 days, with each forecourt given equal weight; they are not sales-weighted UK averages.
The same snapshot showed supermarket petrol averaging 170.9p, compared with 173.9p across BP, Shell and Esso sites in the index. The index calculates the difference from unrounded averages at about 2.9p per litre, or £1.47 on 50 litres. It is a comparison between national groups, not a promise that a supermarket near you will be cheaper.
For now, the practical takeaway is simple: there is no January fuel duty rise to prepare for, but the freeze is temporary. When filling up, the price difference between forecourts you can actually use matters more than a national average. Check nearby reported prices before making a detour, and account for the fuel that detour would cost.