Chancellor George Osborne has scrapped the planned 3p rise in fuel duty and admitted that the UK’s economy is struggling.

The Forum of Private Business’s Chief Executive Phil Orford commented, “A 3p rise in January would have been nothing short of economic vandalism in the current climate, in fact it would have been hard to imagine a worse start to 2013 for the UK economy. No doubt the Chancellor will have heard the nation’s collective sigh of relief at the news January’s hike has not just been delayed, but abandoned altogether.”

The Freight Transport Association also has welcomed the Chancellor's decision to cancel January's 3p per litre fuel duty increase, but is disappointed that he did not go further and abandon all planned rises before the next election and move to reduce fuel duty by 3p a litre. 

“We had urged the treasury to commit to the concept of a fuel duty stabiliser by the end of the current Parliament, so what we have here is temporary relief instead of a serious policy change with real lasting benefits, but we can’t see many businesses bemoaning that just yet.”

Meanwile Quentin Willson of FairFuelUK said, "FairFuelUK has worked tirelessly to convince MPs and Ministers that the 3p rise would be enormously damaging to the economic recovery.  To their credit the treasury and the Chancellor have engaged constructively and have made the right decision.  The cancellation of the 3p rise completely is a welcome surprise, it would have cost 35,000 jobs and hit growth. Fantastic news, but the fight for fairer fuel pricing goes on for the sake of hard pressed businesses, the public and to stimulate growth in the economy."