Working families across South West Norfolk will find it even harder to cope with the soaring cost of living, Christopher Fraser, MP for South West Norfolk has warned, 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, electricity and fuel oil bills. 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.
Christopher Fraser said: “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. 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 more efficient one. For example, the tax bill for a typical Ford Mondeo will rise from £210 to £310 a year, with a £500 showroom tax on new cars on top. Yet even the Government’s own estimates show that carbon dioxide emissions from motoring will hardly be cut at all.
“At a time when families are feeling the pinch of the rising cost of living – because of increases in fuel prices, energy bills and the weekly food shopping – the Government must scrap its plans for a big increase in road tax on family cars. Enough is enough; this is another slap in the face by the Labour Government for hard-working people.
“Perhaps the most unfair aspect to this move is that it is retrospective. When my constituents bought a family car 7 years ago, they had no idea they would face penalties of this magnitude as the vehicle got older. The Government must think again. 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.” |