George Osborne,
the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the Conservative-LibDem
Coalition government, will present his third Budget speech to
the House of Commons on Wednesday 21st March 2012.
Budget statement
- see our report on the V8 website
As usual we will have a report on the statement within an hour
or so of the Chancellor sitting down in the House of Commons.
| See
our Budget 2011 report 22.3.11.
More |
Updated: 190312 |
How
will classic motoring suffer in the Budget?
What might we see in the Budget?
Fuel duty
Lower fuel duty is the announcement most UK MG enthusiasts and
motorists generally would like to hear in the Budget statement.
Prices for premium 95 (RON) petrol have reached around 138p
a litre, over the record set in May 2011, and in some areas
considerably higher. Independent fuel retailers have said it
is possible that prices could hit 142p a litre by Easter. Fuel
duty is due to rise by 3p a litre in August 2012 (postponed
from January 2012) but George Osborne has been under pressure
to delay the increase. Fortunately the chancellor scrapped the
fuel duty escalator which had raised duty by 1p above inflation
every year as an automatic measure.
A substantial rise in the price of crude oil is the major factor
although motor fuel prices in the UK have been driven up by
three fuel duty increases since last April 2010, a fall in Sterling
(making US Dollar denominated crude supplies more expensive
in Sterling terms) and a rise in VAT in early January 2011.
VED - possibly an RPI increase
Hopefully we shall see no new heavy changes, simply the
RPI increases in the rates mentioned in earlier Budgets. VED
rates
VAT - no change
Thankfully no further increase is expected.
Roads improvement scheme
Speculation over a new scheme to introduce private sector investment
and management skills into road maintenance and/or new road
building schemes has been a news topic today. Shadow road tolling
or public sector service charge payments are the likely source
of payment from the public sector with possibly real tolls on
new roads built by private sector investors and operators under
these proposals. |