FairFuelUK has welcomed an announcement by chancellor Rishi Sunak in today's (3 March) spring Budget that the goverment is to again freeze fuel duty.
Commented Howard Cox, founder of FairFuelUK, secretary for the APPG for Fair Fuel: “It would be churlish not to thank the chancellor and the prime minister for maintaining the freeze in fuel duty for a 10th successive year. It has been a tortuous campaigning journey convincing the treasury year after year that this fiscal policy has positively benefitted the economy.
“Motorists, van drivers and truckers will hope this is just the start of more pro-motoring policies, which have been sadly lacking in this Parliament. The cost of navigating our roads still remains the highest in the world and drivers continue to be demonised for all environmental ills by mis-informed politicians, but continuing the cap on duty will be warmly welcomed.
“Now is the time for ministers Grant Shapps, Rishi Sunak and George Eustice to consult with UK’s 37 million drivers through FairFuelUK regarding the future of road transport taxation and vehicle fuel policy. They must start seeing motorists as part of the solution and to stop making policy based on huge and biased lobbying pressure from the very well financed environmental lobby, that uses emotion not science to push their ill-informed green political agenda."
Added RHA chief executive Richard Burnett: “The chancellor’s announcement of a fuel duty freeze comes as very good news for the hundreds of thousands of commercial vehicle operators who have been struggling as a result of the pandemic.”
Craig Mackinlay MP, South Thanet, chair of the APPG for Fair Fuel: “The continued freeze on fuel duty is absolutely the right decision and one that will be welcomed by hard-pressed motorists and hauliers up and down the country. The electorate resoundingly rejects the green lobby’s unpopular policies at repeated elections. The Chancellor is quite right to dismiss their call for an increase in fuel duty too.”
Julian Knight MP, Solihull, chair of the culture select committee, former chair of the APPG for Fair Fuel: “I’m pleased given the war on motorists most left wing luvvies want us to declare, that the chancellor has decided to bolster Britain by retaining the fuel duty freeze, now we need better roads, an end to punishing congestion charges, and an honest debate on the merits of cars and lorries.”
However, Adam Bond, chief executive of hydrogen fuel cell specialist AFC Energy, claimed the move didn't go far enough: “It’s unfortunate that an opportunity was missed to catalyse further investment into alternative fuel sources," he said. "We believe he could have gone further in considering fuel duty changes; this includes penalising the use of red diesel in industry, which the chancellor has previously admitted distorts competition and acts as a block on green alternatives.”
