Fuel duty cut by 1p a litre from today

Delivering the 2011 Budget, Chancellor George Osborne has surprised Parliament by introducing a raft of changes to fuel duty charges which begin immediately with a penny per litre drop in fuel duty at 6pm today.

The inflation plus 1p annual escalator introduced by the previous Labour government has been canned for the life of this parliament and next week's inflation-only increase in fuel duty - which would have meant a 5p per litre rise - has been postponed until 1 January 2012.