CLA launches campaign calling for rural proofing of Vehicle Excise Duty

The CLA today launches a campaign to call for Rural Proofing – starting with Vehicle Excise Duty.

The rural economy experts say that the additional Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) announced at the last Budget mean those who are struggling financially in the countryside will be hit hardest by the tax.

The CLA still believes it should be entirely rurally proofed with a rural tax credits system in England and Wales – regardless of what concessions the Government ends up making to Britain's hard-hit motorists as a whole.

CLA President Henry Aubrey-Fletcher said: "If you are, say, an uplands farmer and struggling financially, Chancellor Alistair Darling's suggestion that you avoid higher Vehicle Excise Duty by buying a new car is clearly ludicrous.

"As the Commission for Rural Communities pointed out in its Monitoring Rural Proofing report last year, the Government made a 'clear and continuing commitment to rural proof its policies and programmes' eight years ago but that commitment is 'not being delivered consistently'. We believe a rural proofing system with rural tax credits to off-set extra VED costs is the fairest answer to this problem for people working in the rural economy."

The CLA President added: "The proposed changes in VED represent an ill-advised tax and would hit many in the countryside very hard indeed. Furthermore, it is not even green. The proposals would not make a substantial difference to CO2 emissions. Indeed, Greenpeace has described it as 'the kind of measure that gives green taxes a bad name'."

 MEDIA CONTACTS:

Oliver Wilson, Communications Director, 020 7460 7936 or 07702 928828, ollie.wilson@cla.org.uk,

Phillippa Coates, Press Officer, 020 7460 7934, phillippa.coates@cla.org.uk

Out of hours duty phone: 020 7201 9511.

Adrian Baird – Chief Taxation Adviser

Formerly an Inland Revenue Tax Inspector in Leicestershire. He was promoted to the Inland Revenue Policy Division at Somerset House, London, and was an Inspector Principal when he joined the CLA.

Phone: 020 7235 0511
FAX: 020 7235 4696
Email adrian.baird@cla.org.uk