'Huge consequences' of rising fuel prices

Rising costs of fuel and fertiliser in the wake of the conflict in the Middle East will have "huge consequences" for British farmers, one has warned.

It comes as businesses across Coventry and Warwickshire in various sectors say they are facing "squeezed margins".

Charles Goadby, who farms near Nuneaton, said his business was facing fuel rationing at a vital time in the farming calendar.

"There's a lot of spring field work going on - getting land ready for spring crop planting - so we're burning an awful lot of red diesel," he said.

"Red diesel", a fuel used by farmers in off-road vehicles, machinery and heating, is subject to lower tax as a result, but its price can still rise amid volatility in the wider oil market.

Before US and Israeli forces began bombing Iran last month, the fuel was about 62p per litre, Goadby explained.

"The prices I'm hearing now are ranging from £1.30 to £1.50 so it's more than doubled, it's probably a 150% rise.

"But again it's if you can even get it," he added, with some farmers having to wait "days and days" for a "red diesel" delivery.

"It's going to have huge consequences on what we can actually plant."

Leamington Spa street food van owner Barny Luxmoor said he feared costs were "only going to get worse".

He travels to events selling gourmet toasted cheese sandwiches and says costs are "rising every couple of days".

The hike was "bad enough", he explained, "but the stuff I'm worried about is in a few months when it trickles through all of our suppliers".

"We've got increasing costs but every single supplier we have will have increasing costs and they're going to pass it on down the line to us," the business owner said.

"We're going to have to pull up our braces and squeeze our margins again, and we've done an awful lot of that in the last couple of years."

Bodies that represent driving instructors have warned that further disruption could push up lesson prices further and make it even harder to get a test.

The Driving Instructors Association (DIA), the UK's largest group representing the profession, says passing costs on to learners "will be a consideration for trainers".

Coventry instructor Steve Holmes said he was not putting up prices to students yet, but the rises were costing him "about a free lesson a week".

"You can't expect the students to pay, them and their parents are facing exactly the same situation as me, I'm just absorbing it," he explained.

"I think we should all be invoicing [President Trump] for the extra myself," he added.

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