Fuel prices around Greater London

London is usually among the more expensive places in the country to fill up, and the cause is mostly property. A forecourt occupies a large footprint of very valuable land, and business rates, staffing and delivery costs in the capital are all higher than the national picture. Those costs end up on the totem pole.

The pattern inside the M25 is fairly consistent: central and inner London carry the highest prices, and they fall as you move out toward the suburbs. The supermarket sites in the outer boroughs, around Enfield, Croydon, Hounslow, Romford and the Kingston fringe, are reliably cheaper than anything you will find in zones one and two, often by well over ten pence a litre.

ULEZ and the congestion charge have changed the fleet mix rather than the pump price. What they have done is make the outer boroughs busier for refuelling, because drivers running errands at the edge of the zone would rather fill there than pay city centre rates. If you have any flexibility about where you stop, the ring of stations just inside the M25 is the place to do it.