UK petrol shortage — live: Asda sets £30 limit amid fuel panic buying

EG Group, which recently bought Asda, has introduced a limit of £30 per customer on “all grades of fuel”.

In a statement, an EG spokesperson said:

“Due to the current unprecedented customer demand for fuel and associated supply challenges we have taken the decision to introduce a limit of £30 per customer on all of our grades of fuel. This excludes HGV drivers and emergency services due to their vital role at this time.

“This is a company decision to ensure all our customers have a fair chance to refuel and to enable our sites to carry on running smoothly. We kindly ask everyone visiting our sites to treat our colleagues, supply chain partners and customers with respect during these very challenging times. All of EG Group’s UK sites remain open and operational to serve customers.”

The retailer bought the Leon chain of restaurants for a reported £100m earlier this year.

Our associate editor Sean O’Grady writes about Boris Johnson’s failings when it comes to the UK’s imminent “perfect storm” of crises.

You might call it the ultimate in cynicism (which I’d take as a compliment) but I’ve found it a good rule of thumb to take whatever a certain type of politician says and then invert it to discover the reality.

Over the past few of years it’s served me particularly well. Thus, when Theresa May said that no deal was better than bad deal I knew she wouldn’t settle for a no deal Brexit. When Boris Johnson said that the coronavirus emergency would last for a few weeks before we sent it packing, well, I had a funny feeling it might take a bit longer.

Keir Starmer says his internal party reforms aren’t about smashing the left… therefore I am working on the basis that they’re about smashing the left. When Kawsi Kwarteng and his mates say that there won’t be shortages of petrol… well, let’s just say I went out first thing this morning to the petrol station. It’s better than having to walk to the shops (to buy the candles we’ll soon require).

Read his thinking in full here:

The Cabinet Office, the Department for Transport (DfT) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) have taken part in a high-level meeting to discuss supply issues currently hitting the UK.

However, no new measures had been announced on Friday evening over how the government intends to ease pressure on a number of industries, including gas, supermarkets and HGV.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has called for ministers to establish a task force on the same pegging as the Cobra emergency committee to deal with the problems, according to a report by the Press Association.

Tony Danker, CBI director-general, said: “After speaking with hundreds of business leaders this week, it’s clear there’s a total mindset shift from growing to coping. This is now a major threat to our recovery and the government needs to step up its response to a new level of both speed and boldness.

“While many of these challenges are global in nature, the solutions we need are local.”

He added: “Establishing a crisis management task force to move quickly – with both business and government around the table – will ensure government is far more informed about the nature and scale of the challenges, can formulate responses fast, and is able to get the support of the prime minister and the Cabinet to take action required. We stand ready to support the government to do this.”

It comes amid warnings that disruption to festive preparations will be “inevitable” if progress is not made in the next “10 days” to solve the shortfall of around 90,000 lorry drivers.

Paul Holmes has urged Eastleigh residents not to “panic buy” fuel at local stations.

American oil brand Texaco sent an email to all its customers on Friday confirming they are not running out of fuel, and all stations are stocked.

In the email, seen by local news site HampshireLive, the petrol chain wrote:

“We would like to reassure our customers that fuel supplies are ample and that we have committed all available delivery resources in order to keep our Texaco branded service stations adequately stocked.

Despite some media reports of other brands having site closures and other mixed speculation, there is no need for our loyal Texaco customers to fill up more frequently than normal. We are confident that our supply chain is able to adequately manage the current situation and that we are able to continue to satisfy our customers’ needs.”

The Licensed Taxi Drivers Association (LTDA), which represents black cab drivers in London, says it has contacted City Hall for “confirmation” that taxis will continue to have access to fuel set aside for “essential services”.

Petrol stations across the country are continuing to close due to a combination of gas shortages, panic buying and reduced HGV driver numbers.

Graham Wylde, who runs Shawbury Service Station, in Shropshire, said his customers were unhappy on Friday after the site was left with “no petrol to sell for the first time in 50 years”.

He told the BBC it had been particularly “unpleasant” to leave health workers who “urgently” wanted fuel without it.

A delivery had been due at the site at 6am on Friday but it never turned up, he added.

Other petrol stations in Shropshire have reported no supply issues but say they are seeing increased customer demand – about two or three times more than usual.

Meanwhile, garages in areas such as London, Hertfordshire, Northwhich and Worcester were among those forced to shut due to the ongoing crisis.

Ministers are reported to have met today to come up with a solution.

In some related news, Holly Bancroft writes about the incoming hikes shoppers face as a result of difficulties facing the sector, including a shortage of HGV drivers.

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Sables said: “As a result, there is such a pressure on suppliers at the moment, as well as the retailers, to pass those on because the costs simply aren’t sustainable without some form of cost price increase.

“We have never seen this level of suppliers coming to us speaking about planned cost price increases.

“I would expect to see across the next six to eight weeks something like five per cent [increases] going across the board on to the prices on shelves.”

Read the full report here: