Money news in brief: record fuel price rise, Lidl ads banned

A selection of stories affecting your pocket that you might have missed this week.

While we’d love to cover every finance news story that we find interesting, the reality is we’re a small team and there’s only so much time in the day.

So here’s our roundup of personal finance stories from our colleagues in the media that you won’t find on loveMONEY but are still worth drawing attention to.

Record fuel price rise despite Fuel Duty cut

March was the worst month yet for motorists, with fuel prices rising at record pace to hit record new highs.

As Auto Express explains here, petrol jumped 11p over the month while diesel rocketed a staggering 22p per litre.

The site added that motorists will now pay “£89.80 to fill a typical 55-litre family car with petrol - £21.93 more than it did a year ago. The same car would now cost £97.51 to brim with diesel - £27.84 more than 12 months ago”.

What makes these rises all the more galling is the fact they came despite the Government’s much-trumpeted 5p cut to Fuel Duty.

If you want to cut prices at the pump, be sure to read our top tips here.

‘Misleading’ Lidl adverts banned

The Retail Gazette revealed that two adverts from discount supermarket Lidl have been scrapped after the watchdog ruled they were “likely to mislead” shoppers.

The ads, which only ran in Scotland, claimed shoppers could save up to 35% compared to Tesco prices.

Crucially, that claim only referred to the items actually pictured in the specific adverts, rather than being that much cheaper than Tesco overall.

The Advertising Standard Agency didn’t feel this had been made sufficiently clear and called for the ads to be pulled.

Shrinkflation strikes again – coffee and chocolate sizes reduced

One thing that never fails to outrage supermarket shoppers is the practice of reducing the size of something while charging the same price.

Increasing the price would make items look less appealing compared to rivals, so companies choose instead to charge more for their product by quietly giving us less in a practice known as ‘shrinkflation’.

The Grocery Gazette has highlighted how both Nescafe Azera and Cadbury’s Dairy Milk have done just that in the last week, cutting sizes by 10%.

Save on your weekly shop with our supermarket deals roundup

House prices jump more than £40,000 since lockdown

Regular loveMONEY readers will know we think the UK housing market has already gone crazy, but this latest stat which we spotted in the Property Reporter takes things to a whole new level.

Despite all the devastation caused by the global COVID pandemic, house prices have apparently jumped more than £43,500 since the first lockdown was implemented.

See what’s happening to house prices in your area with our monthly house price analysis.