Member Article

Fuel duty freeze not enough

“A step in the right direction but still not enough,” says Neil Addley, MD of leading used car website Trusted Dealers in response to Chancellor George Osborne’s announcement today that fuel duty will be frozen until 2015.

Neil continues: “As expected, the statement hasn’t told us anything we didn’t already know. Osborne has kept to his earlier promise of freezing fuel duty until 2015, which goes some way towards supporting motorists, but does not tackle the already vastly inflated prices we are forced to pay at the pump in order to keep our vehicles on the road.

“We commissioned a survey prior to the Statement which showed an overwhelming majority of the UK population (79.9%) would choose a cut in duty on fuel over any other tax costs including alcohol (8%) and cigarettes (6.8%). Coupled with research which shows 64% of SMEs said a significant cut in fuel duty would help increase their profits, and one in 10 having to make staff redundant because of sky high fuel costs, I fail to understand just how Mr Osborne can claim he is still doing everything he can to aid UK business in achieving economic recovery.

“I feel Osborne’s statement that ‘where we can afford to help hardworking families, we will continue to do so’ misses the point when the cost of fuel impinges on what is often a vital lifeline for individuals, particularly the poorest, erodes business margins and weakens national competitiveness with European countries, most of whom have a far lower fuel duty rate. Cutting fuel duty by 10p per litre would put almost £300 back into the average motorist’s pocket every year, helping out those for whom fuel is a vital necessity.

“The Chancellor has once again missed a golden opportunity to capitalise on the biggest fall in petrol and diesel in five years and stimulate a real recovery by significantly reducing the cost of motoring and getting Britain moving again.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Trusted Dealers .