Motorists are set to be hit hard in Wednesday’s Budget with those who drive gas-guzzling cars facing a shock rise in road tax to £1,000.
Chancellor Alistair Darling will reward those who buy “green” cars with low carbon emissions, but road tax will soar for owners of 4×4s, sports cars and family cars if their vehicles are highly polluting.
The Chancellor will justify the changes by highlighting a target of reducing UK carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2050 to combat global warming.
He is further expected to anger motorists by giving the go-ahead to a 2p increase in fuel duty. Above-inflation increases in tax on cigarettes and alcohol are also expected.
Meanwhile business leaders in Shropshire have today outlined their hopes and fears for Wednesday’s budget
“This budget should be about supporting businesses to enable them to generate the wealth that pays for public spending,” says Shropshire Chamber of Commerce chief executive Nick Graham.
Fay Easton, of Shropshire Enterprise Project, wants the “Darling of Budgets” for Shropshire’s small rurally-based businesses. Tonight we also launch Star Idea, the competition which seeks to find someone with a great business idea - and help them to make it a reality.
44 Comments
why, they already use more petrol so pay more tax.
Yet again, they’re choosing the easy targets.
I trust Brown and his cronies will lead by example and walk the short distance from Downing Street to Parliament instead of using high CO2 emitting Omegas/Jaguars(paid for by us).
Indeed, you never see politicians driving around with a smart car or a fiat 500. The country under labour has become even more of a disgrace. People can not afford to buy homes anymore due to the excessive taxes and inflated prices.
It’s time to remind the government that they are supposed to work for us, not us for them.
Devon Salopian asks why, but surely it’s obvious. We need to reduce our fuel use and carbon emissions, and as part of that we need to stop driving needlessly large and fuel-inefficient cars. My only concern is that this doesn’t go far enough.
Easy targets, not only stung by higher taxes but have thousands knocked off the resale value of their cars at a stroke.
Its easy to dream up thes grossly unfair ideas to fund other pet projects such as the sponger fund to keep the rediculous number of so called incapacity benefit scroungers in the money.
We need a governmnet that is accountable for its own spending before it dictates our level of disposable income.
They will try and screw money out of us right, left and centre.
What happens if your livelihood is day to day use of a 4 x 4?
I myself think they are a pollutent but each to their own.
Good !!! Make it £2000
move to Alberta Canada,road tax is 38 pounds per year:
If you can’t afford the tax - you can’t afford the car.
Welcome to the real world.
I agree that if you are using a HUGE vehicle for no other reason than a fashion statement with no regard for the environmen, I have no sympathy. For those who need to use the larger vehicles for work, its a bit of a shame really but environmental issues are slightly more important in my view than whether little Johnny will have to walk to school.
I’m so pleased that we do not own a 4×4. Indeed, we do not own a motor car and prefer to travel by horse.
Yet they give the go ahead for the new run way at Heathrow!
The hypocracy makes you sick.
Easy tax paying target again.
Good old gutless Gordon
What a mediocre place we now inhabit.
Allow a million immigrants to come in, in two or three
years that will amount to about another half a million
cars on the road, they will need x more roads/ road space,
x more houses, result, x less green space, x more
polutants and x less quality of life for us all.
We should all be thankful to this New Labour Government
for modern Britain, the newest sink country in the world.
Geoff is right on the money why do we allow these people to take our money and spend it on keeping wasters out of work or making the system more accomodating for the huge influx of immigrants who have no contributary history into our system.
All this environmental stuff is fine provided it is fed back into the system to reduce the taxes of everybody - not just the freeloaders.
Simon needs to get into the real world. his comments are rubbish.These punitive taxes affect far more vehicles than the so called 4×4. Anybody who tows anything or has a large family needs a larger engined car.Why should these people pay even higher taxes when they already pay the massive duty and vat levels which apply to our fuel.
Comparew us wiyth the rest of europe.
so what about these people that don’t have a stock pile of cash to beable to afford new cars!
Again, all this is doing is pricing us poorer folk off the road.
No worries though, the rich people will still be driving whatever they want and as many miles as they want.
I live 16 miles from work, my partner and i both work in the same area and car share the journey unlike 90% of the population…under this government i’m now struggling to run my car, as tax and petrol increases, that money is being sucked out of the money put aside for maintaining it, so therefore my car is becoming more poluting.
I would move closer to work, but can’t find a property i can afford…
so a lose lose situation…i’d be better off if both me and my partner stopped working! weird eh?
note to Geoff, I take exception to the statment about people on incapacity benefit being scroungers. I broke my back in a motorcycling accident when I was 17 and spent 5 years in and out of hospital before being able to return to work where i worked till i was 58. when I became so weak and in severe pain that I became confined to a wheelchair.
I would love to get back to work but my doctor. consultant and physio have told me I will never work again, so do you think I am a scrounger, Colin from woodside,
I agree entirely with Simon. If you can afford the tax, you can afford a nice car! Those people who pay attention at school, get degrees, work hard, and earn a decent wage deserve the opportunity to purchase their car of choice. It is - for the time being - a free country. If six numbers came up for me of a Saturday, I will venture - cash in hand - to my nearest Bugatti dealership and say, “I’ll have that Veyron there, please”. I will not enter a Perodua dealer looking for a bargain bucket Kelisa.
What these measures are - in my opinion - are nothing more than an “envy” tax levied by people who object to the masses being able to drive quality vehicles, and based on wonky science.
I find it incredible that politicians can effectively state, “Pay us more money, and we’ll change the weather”, and say such things whilst keeping a straight face. Moreover, modern diesel cars are amazingly frugal with regard to fuel consumption, they emit up to 50g/km less CO2 than the equivalent sized petrol engine, yet the driver of a diesel car is penalised at the pump more heavily than a driver who fills up with super-unleaded!
This government is clueless, and has jumped aboard a green bandwagon specifically to charge Mondeo-Man more for the privilege to drive. They forget that it was “Mondeo-Man” (Bliar’s own phrase) who voted these chumps into power in the first place.
They will not raise it to 1000 pounds. This has been leaked out as a softener. they do this to make it seem horrendous. That gets everyone very excited and upset. That way when they only increase it by say 100pounds everyone will be relieved and accept the increase more philosophically. This is a technique that they use against the people of the country to ensure a lack of protest when they want to do something that people will get up tight about.
It sounds like a crazy idea - and crazy ideas are usually floated around as a smoke and mirror tactic when there’s more sinister news to bury. So what’s the real agenda?
Errr, I’ve just read the BBC website… the new tax is likely to be levied at source, adding up to £2,000 to the showroom price - NOT a hike to £1,000 road tax.
Yes this is just to screw the British motorist again, nothing to do with being environmentally green. If they (poiticians) were so concerned about polution, they woukd be banging on the doors of the Chinese and Indian embassies. Complaining about the massive pollution these countries are spewing into the atmosphere.
Britain is only a tiny pin prick of a country in the world. What we do to reduce pollution won’t make scrap of difference.
Also politiciams need to lead by example and we know how much of a chance we have of that!
Come off it people. Do you really think the government cares about the environment? All this green/environment baloney is clearly another easy way to fleece tax from people.
Alan Birket, I don’t think that most people in the UK could handle the winter temps in Alberta
I know, I lived in Calgary for 3 years, winter starts in October and runs to April/May with temp around
minus 35c YES thats minus 35c and you can still get snow in June.
Amen to Vancouver British Columbia
People that can afford these cars won’t blink at the price increase. However, people that NEED these cars (farmers etc) are getting shafted for more business overheads they can’t always afford.
£1k a year to be able to put your car on the road regardless of the miles you do is pathetic.
I own a kitcar which is far from ecologically friendly. It does about 500 miles or less a year and I have to pay £180 for road tax, the same as my normal daily driver. How is that right?
Bring on the pay as you go scheme I say.
All they’re doing is destroying the second hand market of these vechicles and not providing a sensible alternative to the motor vehicle. I cannot get to work by public transport, nor can most of my staff. We’re seeing plenty of price rises but NO SOLUTIONS!!!
Its interesting that I cant find any evidence of this proposed increase on any other internet news site other than those that are hosted by the express and star group?
I don’t doubt that there is some truth in this but £1000 I find that hard to believe?
The so called gas guzzlers, Land Rovers & Jags are made in Britain. If you keep on increasing the tax on these vehicles it will possibly lead to the closure and thus lose even more jobs.
The more fuel a vehicle uses, the more tax they already pay.
Time to stop increasing taxes on the already overtaxed motorist
I’m fully in agreement with the idea of taxing these vehicles £1000+ when they’re just used as status symbols by women taking their kids the 1/2 mile to school!!! But a system needs to be found to not penalise those who need to use such vehicles in their business.
But let’s forget the “environmental” angle. If the Government was really serious about such issues, they would first tackle the fact that lorries from far-off countries are speeding up and down our motorways bringing us products which could just as easily be made/grown in this country! Why don’t they tackle this? Because Government is controlled by big business these days.
predictions for budget day
2p on petrol withheld, road tax up 3% to 10% depending on size of car. new caravan tax £100 and £50 for all other trailers.
tobacco tax up 25%, spirits up £1 a bottle, wines up 45p a bottle, strong beers and lagers up 7p a pint, weaker beers and real ale unchanged. all other taxes increased by inflation. windfall tax on all power companieas and oil companies of 25%. winter fuel allowances up £50 er that’s it
I have a family car, only because my father is disabled, and not matter how you try you can not get a
Wheelchair into a super mini. Has he became ill after he was 65 he is not egliable for car tax
exemption.
This so called £1000 car tax increase idea along with the £400 per month care bill he has to pay
(only because he has worked all his life to provide for his family)will be an extra cost he can not
afford. Perhaps they want disabled people to remain house bound (out of sight out of mind).
“windfall tax on all power companieas and oil companies of 25%”
That one makes me laugh as well. What an easy target.
How about this one instead - a windfall tax on profits made by companies in the arms trade?
No? I thought not. Too many MPs with vested interests.
Hey spindrift, I didn’t get a degree and a decent career to hand over my cash to the government! So I don’t know what your point is! I already pay a higher income tax, higher council tax, etc etc etc! Just because i can afford to buy a ‘guzzler’, doesn’t mean i need to be fleeced by the government. Its not like the government contributed to my education.
What is 60 per cent of 1 per cent?
And by 2050 !! .Big deal
i do wish ignorant morons would refrain from making cheap comments about incapacity beneficieries, sorry if i am a sponger on my old age pension, but i worked for it and i worked to pay for all others less fortunate than me on incapacity and other benefits, it is called insurance that is spreading the risk of a few over the many. i do hope we won’t have any more sideswipes at those less fortunate than ourselves. sorry to go on but it annoys me
Why not just abolish car tax completely and put the tax on the petrol and diesel, those that use far more, pay more, and those that simply potter to and from the supermarket once a week pay much less. It would hit the gas guzzlers harder than the day to day work commuters i think.
I really wouldn’t mind paying £1,000 a year road tax so long as the rest of the world followed suit.
But I really can’t see the idea of putting up all these different taxes just to make this country look good.
It is called a road tax fund, but do they build new motorways and repair our existing roads with it?
This labour government is just a bunch of money grabbers who think that we should pay for all their stupid ideas.
What’s the point in putting a so-called environmental tax on us, when China the USA and Russia are spilling out fumes left right and bloody centre.
This country should do away with the road tax system altogether and have a pay as you use tax scheme. Two things will happen over night.
1, There would be no more road tax evaders.
2, Those that use the roads will pay for the roads and for all those that are worried about the businessman. They could get a tax refund at the end of the year when they do there accounts.
shroos, shroos, shroos! Easy does it!
Maybe I didn’t phrase my comment well, but what you’re saying is exactly what I was trying to say! As I said, it’s an “envy” tax designed to grasp more money from those people who work hard and earn a decent living.
I’m with you 100% shroosman.
Now that the announcement has been made it’s clear that this was just scaremongering by some Shropshire Star hack. It’s £950 on the price of some new cars. As Simon says, if you can afford to buy one of these new, you can afford the extra tax.
It’s also a bit sad that some correspondents feel the need to bring immigration into every argument.
You’ll be blaming them for the bad weather next…
We have a freelander and mostly only use it to pull our caravan,the rest of the time we run around in a small car,prehaps we should only tax it for summer months when in use
they can,t compare vehicles consumption and output fairly, my 4by4 is more economical than most cars at 35 to the gal….exlain why I should be charge more????….
A 4×4 vehicle is the only vehicle to own, suspension damage
caused by the poor state of our roads and the endless speed
humps has actually ceased since I purchased a 4X4 vehicle 2 years ago !
If road conditions continue to deteriorate, guess I may have to
consider using a Tractor !
I agree there is a need for some folk to need to have a 4X4 if they need them for their work especially farm-workers. I think they should be treated as agricultural vehicles - limited to a 1000miles a year on roads and run on red-diesel. The same kind of thing with contracters who work on roads and with companies who use them as vans - all should be taxed and treated as industrial vehicles.
Here’s a simple notion: If you dont like the rule, don’t pay the tax. You think they’ll seize and crush everybody’s car? Speeding fines; people moan about those, so they should just make a decision not to pay and go along to court to explain that they are sick of it. What are they going to do; lock everyone up?
But nahh.. Everyone will roll over and take it, like they usually do. These things are introduced in phases to ensure that a manageable section of the population is irate at any one time.. If there was a national call for change, simply by people refusing to go along with it, then something else would be done to avert the potential anarchy that would ensue