2 June 2008
Working families across Reading and West Berkshire will find it even harder to cope with the soaring cost of living, Alok Sharma, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Reading West 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.
Alok Sharma said: “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.”
Alok Sharma added: “At a time when families are feeling the pinch financially of the rising cost of living - with higher fuel prices, higher energy bills, higher food prices and higher council tax - the Government should scrap its plan for the big increase in road taxes on family cars. This is yet another slap in the face for hardworking families from Labour coming on top of the 10p income tax hike.
In the meantime the current MP for Reading West is behaving as he always does in these situations, shedding crocodile tears and saying in the local press that he wants to stop these extra costs falling on local families and then letting constituents in Reading West down yet again by not voting for the change when he has the opportunity in Parliament."
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.
Alok Sharma said: “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.”
Alok Sharma added: “At a time when families are feeling the pinch financially of the rising cost of living - with higher fuel prices, higher energy bills, higher food prices and higher council tax - the Government should scrap its plan for the big increase in road taxes on family cars. This is yet another slap in the face for hardworking families from Labour coming on top of the 10p income tax hike.
In the meantime the current MP for Reading West is behaving as he always does in these situations, shedding crocodile tears and saying in the local press that he wants to stop these extra costs falling on local families and then letting constituents in Reading West down yet again by not voting for the change when he has the opportunity in Parliament."
