Government must U-turn on plans to hit families with new car taxes : Graham Evans, Conservative MP for Weaver Vale
Graham Evans, Conservative MP for Weaver Vale

Government must U-turn on plans to hit families with new car taxes

Cllr Graham Evans warns of soaring cost of living across Weaver Vale

Working families across Weaver Vale will find it even harder to cope with the soaring cost of living, Cllr Graham Evans, Weaver ValesProspectiveMP, warned today, thanks to Gordon Brown’s new plans to hike taxes on family cars.

Fuel prices at the pump are rocketing, and households face ever-higher gas and electricity bills on top of higher council tax. The cost of driving a car will soon be even higher. Low-income households will be the hardest hit, just as they have been with the 10p income tax hikes.

The Government is to change the way that Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) is calculated to raise an extra £2,500,000,000 for Gordon Brown’s coffers. Family cars face higher VED as well as a ‘showroom tax’ for new cars. The VED tax will be retrospective – so any car bought after 2001 will be hit by the higher tax rates. This will lead in turn to a plummeting re-sale price for second-hand cars. This will make it more difficult for people to replace their car and upgrade to a new or better one.

For example, the tax bill for a typical Ford Mondeo will rise from £210 to £310 a year, with a new £500 showroom tax on top. Yet, even the Government’s own estimates show that carbon dioxide emissions from motoring will hardly be cut at all.

Graham said:  “At a time when families are feeling the pinch of the rising cost of living – because of higher fuel prices, energy bills and council tax – the Government should scrap its plans for a big increase in road tax on family cars. This is yet another slap in the face for hard-working families from Labour, on top of the 10p income tax hikes.

“Conservatives have consistently opposed these measures. The Government must execute a sharp U-turn. Any change in road tax should focus only on the most polluting vehicles, and be offset by equivalent reductions in family taxes. All Gordon Brown is interested in is finding new ways to push up his notorious stealth taxes even further.”

JUNE 2008