A Conservative MP hopes to secure powers to combat higher fuel prices in rural areas.

Wyre Forest MP Mark Garnier said motorists across his largely rural constituency in Worcestershire knew that fuel was cheaper the closer they got to Birmingham.

This was certainly the case with supermarket forecourts, he added.

Motorists could see a difference of up to 7p per litre in fuel prices between Kidderminster and Bromsgrove, said Mr Garnier.

Trying to understand why this happens was "like trying to read and understand a dark art," he told MPs on Tuesday (20 January).

Mr Garnier was presenting the first stage of a Bill that he claims would bring more "rural justice" to fuel pricing.

If enacted, it would give powers to the Competition and Market's Authority (CMA) to investigate and "iron out" price discrepancies between cities and rural towns.

The Private Member's Bill had no opposition and will face the next stage of scrutiny on the sixth of March, when it will have its Second Reading.

Mr Garnier said the main target of the his Road Fuel Pricing (Equalisation) Bill was supermarkets forecourts.

"Supermarkets, with just 16% of outlets, dominate the market with 44% of the volume market share-just four big supermarket chains in the UK hold 44% of the market."

Big retailers checked prices within a three mile radius and raised prices if they had no significant competition, as was the case in rural areas, claimed Mr Garnier.

The Bill would seek to ensure that people were not penalised for living in areas where petrol stations were few and far between, and public transport networks were poor.

Mr Garnier said he was an advocate of free market economics and supported healthy competition. But sometimes intervention was necessary.

"In our complex world, from time to time markets fail to deliver exclusively fair outcomes, and when markets go wrong I believe intervention should happen, as is the case with road fuel pricing."