Brits spending £121 on petrol and electricity a week

Petrol and electricity in the UK is among the most expensive in Europe, a new report has said, with the two utilities costing Brits £120 ($159) a week on average.

The study, conducted by delivery management firm Urbantz, analysed petrol and electricity prices in 40 European countries.

It found that an average 55 litre tank of petrol costs £81, making the UK the 14th most expensive country in Europe for fuel.

And electricity in the UK costs roughly £39 a week. The two utilities combined consume 26% of the average weekly wage in the UK. In Germany and Finland, by comparison, it takes up about 19% of weekly wage.

“With the cost of petrol and electricity skyrocketing due to rising wholesale costs, this data offers a striking picture of where the UK sits in Europe when it comes to the average cost of fuel,” a spokesperson for Urbantz said.

"Despite earning among the lowest weekly salaries in the Western and Northern Europe, we still have some of the highest electricity and petrol prices, only fuelled by recent supply chain issues and the soaring global price of oil," they said.

"We can only expect prices to increase further with the recent collapse of energy suppliers and upcoming cold weather”.

Just last week, Zog Energy became the latest casualty of the UK energy market crisis, as smaller suppliers continue to buckle under mounting wholesale costs. It was the 25th firm regulator Ofgem has had to manage in the last three months.

Read more: Zog Energy becomes latest UK supplier to go bust

Reasons behind the dramatic increase in power prices include low gas reserves, strong commodity and carbon prices, heightened global demand and low wind output.

And the RAC has said that even as wholesale costs of both unleaded petrol and diesel in the UK are falling due to the Omicron variant, pumps are increasing their prices for their own gains.

Meanwhile Finland has the most expensive fuel in Europe, with households spending an average of £87 on a 55-litre tank of petrol and £91 a week on electricity, followed by Sweden.

At the other end of the scale, Kazakhstan is the country with the cheapest electricity and petrol in Europe — a tank of petrol comes to just £25, while a weekly electricity bill is an average of £7.80.

Similarly, Azerbaijan and Belarus see some of the lowest prices for fuel in all of Europe.

Watch: How to save money on a low income