2) George Osborne MP
Title: Chancellor of the Exchequer
To put it simply, the chancellor makes this list as he decides operators' cost-bases.
UK GDP has outperformed France, Germany and the Eurozone in 2013, 2014 and all of 2015 that has been measured to date. For that reason alone Osborne is respected among the road transport community for bringing firstly stability, and secondly growth, to what was a moribund economy prior to the coalition government. Those five years were also defined by a 1p cut and consecutive freezes in fuel duty. In November however, Osborne sneaked in a tax-rise through the back door, outlining plans to raise fuel duty in line with inflation. That’s something operators can cope with when Brent Crude currently trades at around $40 a barrel, but allsorts of geopolitical factors could conspire next year to increase the price. Imagine a world where fuel duty increases in line with inflation on oil at $100 a barrel? We bet Osborne has, and you should too.
- Every day over Christmas and the New Year we have been counting down the Motor Transport Power Players from 20 to one, so come back tomorrow at 9am to see who tops our list. As ever, we'd welcome your feedback and input into the debate. Send us your thoughts on Twitter @Motor_Transport using #MTPowerPlayers
