British motorists are continuing to pay inflated fuel prices after global oil prices returned to pre-war levels, exposing once again how capitalism allows corporations to turn every crisis into an opportunity for profit.
According to analysis by the Press Association, petrol prices across the UK remain around 19p per litre higher than they were before the latest US Israeli war against Iran, despite crude oil prices falling back to roughly the same level. That means millions of working people are still paying the price for a crisis that has already passed.
The RAC says many drivers are missing out on savings because they aren’t using the government’s Fuel Finder service and other price comparison apps, with the BBC finding a difference of more than 11p per litre between forecourts less than three miles apart in Hull.
RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: “There have been a few issues with the data, some retailers haven’t been updating as much as they should have been.
“But we would really strongly advise people to take advantage of them.”
Since February, petrol stations have been legally required to report price changes to the government’s Fuel Finder database within 30 minutes. Chancellor Rachel Reeves says the Competition and Markets Authority has already issued hundreds of warning letters to businesses that failed to comply.
When Fuel Finder was launched, the government claimed it would save motorists around £40 a year by increasing competition between retailers.
But the problem runs much deeper than whether consumers have enough information. Competition under capitalism doesn’t exist to give people the cheapest fuel possible. It exists because rival companies are each trying to maximise their own profits. If market conditions allow firms to keep prices high, that’s exactly what they’ll do.
The fuel industry has repeatedly demonstrated what’s often called the “rockets and feathers” effect. Prices shoot up like a rocket whenever oil becomes more expensive, but drift down like a feather when wholesale costs fall. Capitalists are quick to pass rising costs onto workers, but far slower to give up the extra profits once those costs disappear.
Retailers argue that some price differences reflect different purchasing strategies, with some buying fuel weeks in advance while others buy at current wholesale prices. Smaller rural forecourts also face different operating costs and receive deliveries less frequently. Those factors can explain some variation between individual stations, but they don’t explain why average prices across the country remain so much higher after oil markets have already settled.
This is another reminder that markets don’t exist to meet human need. They exist to generate profit. Working-class people depend on fuel to get to work, take children to school and carry out everyday life. That dependence gives fuel companies enormous leverage to protect their margins even when the justification for higher prices has disappeared.
The government hopes better price comparison tools will pressure companies into lowering prices. But as long as essential goods remain in private hands, workers will continue paying whatever the market can be made to bear. The issue isn’t simply a lack of competition. It’s an economic system where the needs of millions are always secondary to the profits of a few.
