Opinion: next Prime Minister should to introduce road-tax holiday to help motorists with rising costs

carwow’s consumer editor urges Conservative leadership candidates to recognise how vital cars are to people up and down the country, and stop making transport policies that don’t reflect how people in the UK really live.

• Fuel duty cuts have little impact on motorists
• A road tax holiday would be more a more direct intervention that would help drivers immediately with cost of living concerns
• New incentives are required if the 2030/35 ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars is to work

The next Prime Minister needs to recognise how vital the car is to the vast majority of people in the UK and do something meaningful to help them cope with rising costs, according to Hugo Griffiths, consumer editor at carwow, the UK’s leading car marketplace.

Griffiths calls for the successful Conservative Party leadership candidate to consider introducing a road tax holiday to help motorists struggling with the cost of living crisis. He also says that in order to meet the Government target to ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, more needs to be done to make EVs a viable option for the average motorist.

“The five pence-per-litre fuel duty cut of March was well intentioned, but market volatility meant many motorists felt little impact from it. Giving drivers a 12-month payment holiday from Vehicle Excise Duty would be a more direct saving, and one that could be means tested so those who pay the £355 ‘luxury car’ road tax supplement are ineligible for the cut.

“On a broader level, the next Prime Minister needs to bear in mind that 36 million people hold driving licences, and 78% of households have at least one car.

“‘Motorist’ is therefore effectively synonymous with ‘voter’, and for too long voters have been made to feel guilty for using their cars when public transport is either ruinously expensive, or simply non-existent.

“Lofty Government ambitions, such as the one that half of all urban journeys should be walked or cycled by 2030, bear little resemblance to a wet Wednesday afternoon in November when parents are trying to transport primary-school children from one end of town to the other.

“Drivers are also understandably concerned about the affordability of EVs as we edge closer to 2030 and 2035. Rather than cut incentives, as was done recently with the winding up of the £1,500 Plug-in Car Grant, the next PM should turn to Germany, where a combination of Government and manufacturer incentives contribute up to €9,000 towards the cost of a new electric car.

A number of the candidates have already pledged to help with rising motoring costs if they are elected leader. Before he withdrew, Sajid Javid promised to cut fuel duty by 10p, and Penny Mordaunt has pledged to cut VAT on fuel by 50%. Griffiths believes the next PM needs to take a more radical and honest approach to transport.

“Not properly addressing soaring fuel prices and the looming ban on new cars with internal combustion engines serves only to alienate drivers from those elected to govern us. Cutting VAT on electric cars costing less than £40,000 is one thing that could be considered, while public discussions about how we will replace the £28bn of fuel duty petrol and diesel cars bring in each year also need to begin in earnest.”