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Sun, 11 Oct 2026

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 Charities and businesses wrestle with diesel cost

Cancer charity Daft as a Brush and Teesside Minibus Hire say they are struggling with pump prices.
Daft as a Brush, a cancer charity that provides transport to hospital appointments, is shelling out £15,000 per month on diesel, £5,000 more than last year. The charity had planned to replace its 30 vans with electric vehicles but can no longer afford it due to the high fuel costs. Volunteer driver Davey Hall said: "We used to fill up for £40-45, now it's £94 for half a tank." Head of income generation Scott Jobson said the charity is losing funds raised by donations at the pump and cannot get discounts on fuel prices. Teesside Minibus Hire director Billy Johnson said his business is running close to unsustainable levels due to soaring diesel prices and is passing costs on to customers. Johnson said: "We're not running at a loss yet, but we can't afford to keep going like this." The government has extended its fuel duty freeze until the end of the year, capping tax at 5p per litre for petrol and diesel.