More than a fortnight after independents began selling diesel for less than a pound per litre the UK’s four supermarket giants have followed their lead.

Independent supermarket and fuel retailer Jempson’s was one of the first to dip below £1 per litre, cutting diesel to 99.7ppl on December 17.

The company, which is based at Peasmarsh in East Sussex, was also selling unleaded petrol at 99.9ppl, and has held its prices since then. Director Stephen Jempson commented: “Volumes have been huge.”

And on December 21, Velautham Sarveswaran, who runs three Harvest-branded sites with his wife, Ananthi, cut prices at his sites in Birmingham, Redditch and Walsall to 99.7ppl for unleaded petrol and diesel.

Morrisons was the first of the big four to make the move, cutting diesel to 99.7ppl from 3pm on Sunday January 3.

Tesco and Asda announced they would match Morrisons’ price from January 4, with Sainsbury cutting its diesel to 99.9ppl. All four cut unleaded petrol prices to less than £1 per litre in mid December.