Budget: The haulier (From Oxford Mail)

Budget: The haulier

10:00am Thursday 21st March 2013 in News

SCRAPPING the planned fuel duty rise won’t keep the prices down at the pumps, according to haulier Steve Radband.

Mr Radband, 51, owns SJ Radband Haulage, in Bampton, and has already had to cut the size of his fleet from seven trucks to two in the last year.

He said the Chancellor’s announcement that the planned 3p rise in fuel duty had been scrapped was a welcome gesture, but said it would not make a difference.

He said: “The prices will still keep going up at the pumps. You look in two weeks and they will have gone up.

“The scrapping of the rise is a good thing, don’t get me wrong, but the Government needs to take more control over the fuel industry to stop the prices going up.”

He said his annual spend on diesel, which now costs about 146p a litre, was more than £250,000 last year, more than double what it was six years ago.

But one of the Chancellor’s announcements prompted a warmer response from Mr Radband, whose 27-year-old son David is serving with the 1st Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, based at RAF St Athan, in Wales.

In his speech, Mr Osborne said members of the military would be exempt from a one per cent cap on wage rises for public sector rises.

He said: “That’s very good news.”