The government has admitted in a recruitment advert that its new pay-per-mile tax is “designed as a long-term replacement for fuel duty” two days before Healey’s first Budget sets the scheme on its way into law. Oh boy…
The advert – for up to six policy advisers at the Treasury – closed on 5th October and promises the successful candidate “a pivotal role in delivering this new tax, one of the biggest tax reforms of this Parliament.” The team will be “progressing work to legislate for and deliver the tax”…
The Government’s published guidance is very careful to say only that the already announced tax on electric vehicles ‘is intended to help replace lost fuel duty revenue from cars over the long term’. No talk of full replacement…
The Treasury recruiters go further than anything the Government have said before and describe the tax as built to replace fuel duty outright, adding that it “will raise £4.4 billion across the scorecard period.” Big numbers…
From 1 April 2028, drivers of electric cars will pay three pence for every mile and drivers of plug-in hybrids 1.5 pence – on top of their existing road tax – by estimating their mileage in advance and having it checked against the odometer at every MOT. Fuel duty raises more than £24 billion a year. This pay-per-mile tax initially has been sold as only for electric cars, who of course do not pay fuel duty. It is set to be legislated for this year in the Budget on Wednesday. The Treasury’s plans are far more extensive…
Healey inherited the scheme from Reeves’ Treasury. Which is pushing ahead at full speed…
Shadow Chancellor Andrew Griffith tells Guido:
“John Healey must rule out pay-per-mile for every petrol and diesel driver at next week’s Budget. The British public are already taxed when they buy a car, taxed to fill up a car, taxed when they park a car, and now Labour want to tax every mile you drive. Families are not cash machines. With 20mph limits sweeping the country and petrol prices through the roof, is there no end to Labour’s war on motorists?”
Richard Holden, Shadow Transport Secretary, also said:
“Labour started with electric cars because it thought nobody would notice, but a tax built to replace £24 billion a year of fuel duty will not stop at 3p a mile on electric cars. John Healey must come clean about how far this road goes.”
Does Labour do everything by stealth? Anyone remember when they ruled out the Farm Tax before the 2024 election?
Robert Jenrick told a rally on Monday:
“They say Chancellors are either undertakers or bookies. This one is an ostrich – and when the Chancellor buries his head in the sand, the rest of us, we’re left staring at his you know what.”