Petrol prices fell across Britain today as BP, Shell and Total followed the supermarkets in bringing a hint of relief to beleaguered motorists.

Drivers were able to fill their tanks for less than 108p per litre for the first time in six months in many parts of the country leaving retailers to report a surge in business.

After months of pressure from motoring organisations and consumers demanding that the falling global oil price be reflected on forecourts, Morrisons started a supermarket price war by cutting petrol prices by 3p a litre.

Other supermarkets and then oil companies emulated those cuts today with Asda and Total reducing prices by 3p per litre of petrol across the country and most other retailers, including the oil giants, implementing reductions. Analysts predicted that prices will continue to fall through the autumn.

Edmund King, the AA president, welcomed the cuts but said that prices were still 2p higher than they should be and that oil companies had been too slow in passing the drop in the oil price on to customers.

On this day last year the average price for a litre of petrol was just 95.22p but customers at supermarkets with aggressive pricing policies were surprised and relieved to see petrol back below 110p per litre.

A spokesman for Morrisons said: “At all our forecourts it’s been a very, very busy day with a significant increase in customers.”

At a branch in West Yorkshire, John Black, 25, was one of those making use of the reductions. “Because of the high prices, I haven’t been putting as much petrol in my car recently and I’ve tried not to drive as much,” he said. “They’re going back down. It’s still expensive but it’s better than it was.

Dan Howard, 25, a traffic management operative agreed. “Everyone will be happy. It’s got to be a good start at least,” he said.

For some supermarket customers the prices were as low as 106.9p per litre but the AA reported that national price averages were lagging behind.

An AA spokesman said that the uneven nature of fuel pricing will be highlighted once again by the supermarkets’ price cuts. Any town with an Asda, Morrison’s or Tesco petrol station will see prices falling on all forecourts in the area. Shell and Esso garages in areas with less competition, however, will keep their prices relatively high.

Shell and BP confirmed that the price of petrol on all of their company-owned forecourts would be lowered in time for this weekend.

The lowest BP petrol price could be found at the Royal Oak Connect in Kent today where 3p was struck from the price of a litre.

The cut is roughly equivalent to a £1.50 saving each time the tank of an average family car is filled. The saving comes on the day that a survey claimed that the weekly disposable income of British households fell for the fifth month in a row.

A 7.4 per cent increase in the cost of living left households’ disposable income cut by £11 last month compared with August last year, according to a survey by Asda.

The supermarket said that inflationary pressures combined with moderate earnings growth were squeezing families’ disposable income.

The AA and Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) agreed that petrol prices would continue to fall in the next few weeks, easing inflationary pressure.

Ray Holloway, director of the PRA, said: “If there are no unexpected events in the areas of crude oil production or refining and currency exchange rates now remain relatively stable, UK motorists can expect forecourt prices to fall though until the end of October. There is evidence that this is beginning to occur and should be obvious on forecourts across the UK within the next 10 days.”

A fall to 108p nationally would bring prices back to the March level when a new high was recorded after oil pushed through the $100-per-barrel barrier. The highest national petrol average price of all time was 119.7p, recorded on July 17 this year.

An AA spokesman predicted that to see a return to last year’s figures would require a significant spike in the value of the dollar or a global recession that would force down demand.

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