The cost of visiting family and friends will be cheap this holiday season

As the oil prices are dipping to the lowest level since May 2009, this could take fuel prices to less than £1 per litre at the pumps, according to RAC. The price of Brent crude oil is currently less than $60 a barrel, and the motoring organisation believes that this is likely to keep falling.

It hopes that nationally prices will fall below £1 per litre in the first few months of the New Year. The average price of petrol in the UK is currently 116.9p per litre, nearly 14p per litre cheaper than the start of the year. Meanwhile, diesel is almost 16p per litre cheaper than it was early in 2014 – currently at 122.33p per litre.

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: “What’s currently happening at the pumps with falling fuel prices is something many motorists will not remember seeing before.

“Talk of prices going up like a rocket and falling like a feather could not be further from the truth as retailers have been quick to pass on savings at the forecourt since we forecast on December 6 that prices were due to come down by 7p a litre for petrol and 6p for diesel.

“The cost of going to visit family and friends this Christmas will be the cheapest it’s been for nearly five years, but the prospect of petrol going below £1 a litre in the new year is incredible, particularly when prices at the beginning of 2014 seemed to be heading ever upwards.”