Friends of the Earth: Press Releases: : BROWN MUST INCREASE ROAD TAX FOR GAS GUZZLERS IN BUDGET

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BROWN MUST INCREASE ROAD TAX FOR GAS GUZZLERS IN BUDGET

Mar 10 2004

The Government should increase road tax on gas guzzlers in next week's Budget, Friends of the Earth said today. The environmental campaign group is calling for a graduated scale of road tax bands rising to up to 500 per year for the most polluting cars [1]. Recent Government research shows that this would prompt 72 per cent of car buyers to choose a vehicle with lower emissions [2]

Currently 60 per cent of cars on sale in Britain fall into the 165 top band of Vehicle Excise Duty (road tax). As a result, drivers of the most polluting car available in Britain (the Ferrari 456M GTA 2+2) pay the same road tax as the driver of a family car such as the Ford Focus 1.8i estate, despite fact that the Ferrari produces over three times as much pollution. The Ferrari is seven times more polluting than Britain's least polluting car, the Honda Insight. But Ferrari owners are only charged three times as much road tax [3].

Friends of the Earth's Transport Campaigner Tony Bosworth said:

"It's crazy that owners of Britain's most polluting cars pay the same road tax as owners of a family estate. It's time this was sorted out. The Chancellor has rightly cut road tax for smaller, less polluting cars, he should now increase the tax for gas guzzlers in the Budget. This would encourage motorists to buy less polluting cars and help cut emissions of the gases causing climate change."

The cost of motoring fell between 1997 (when Labour came to power) and 2001 [4]. Data from the RAC shows that the weekly cost of running a Ford Focus (one of Britain's most popular cars) fell by over six per cent in 2003 from 109.23 in the first quarter of 2003 to 101.25 in the fourth quarter [5].

Notes

[2] Department for Transport `Assessing the impact of graduated Vehicle Excise Duty: Quantitative Report' figure 17 - published 5^th March 2004 - see www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_roads/documents/page/dft_roads_027589.hcsp

[3] Data taken from the Vehicle Certification Agency's New Car Fuel Consumption and Emissions Database at www.vcacarfueldata.org.uk/

[4] Data from Parliamentary Written Answer 20^th November 2002.

[5] RAC Motoring Index Quarter Four 2004 www.rac.co.uk/pdfs/2314InsureIndex162.pdf (PDF format)

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