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Businesses and workers in south-west England say they are feeling the effect as petrol and diesel prices continue to rise<\/a> as a result of the war in the Middle East.<\/a><\/p>\n Gregory Distribution, a haulage firm based in Cullompton, said it had already felt the short term impact, but it was more concerned the long term effect would be a rise in inflation and reduction in demand.<\/p>\n Meanwhile a worker who relies on fuel to drive to work, said she was also feeling the affect of the sudden price increase.<\/p>\n Christina Hill, a social carer for Devon Home Care Ltd, said she received a mileage payment from her employer which had not been increased so she was absorbing the extra cost herself.<\/p>\n Angela Butler, managing director of Gregory Distribution, which operates across Devon, Cornwall and beyond, said the increased costs had to be passed on to customers.<\/p>\n “They will want to recover that from their’s,” she said. “That will have an inflationary impact and potentially impact consumer demand.”<\/p>\n “And if consumer demand drops off or stays as muted as it has been, say for the last 18 months, then we are going to find that we’re not moving as much around and that will have a long term impact,” she added.<\/p>\n Butler said the firm had not experienced any fuel supply issues as yet and had enough stockpiled to last until, at least, the middle of April.<\/p>\n She said they were not anticipating fuel supplies running out but feared that could lead to panic buying.<\/p>\n