Motorists who buy gas-guzzling cars will face a shock increase in road tax to £1,000 in Wednesday’s Budget to force high polluting cars off the road.
Chancellor Alistair Darling will reward people who buy “green” cars with low carbon emissions, but road tax will go up for anyone driving a 4×4, sports car or family car if their vehicles are highly polluting.
Vehicle excise duty will rise to around £1,000 in the first year for vehicles in the top band of worst polluters.
It will then fall in the second and subsequent years to around £300.
Mr Darling is expected to change the bands so that more cars with low carbon emissions will attract low or even zero road tax, while the worst offenders are hit harder. The Chancellor will justify the changes by pointing a target of reducing UK carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2050 to combat global warming.
He is further expected to anger drivers by pushing through a 2p increase in fuel duty announced last year despite the current record prices for petrol and diesel.
The rising cost of oil and the expected Budget increase in tax will mean drivers will soon be paying £5 a gallon for their fuel.
Wednesday’s Budget is also likely to see above-inflation increases in tax on cigarettes and alcohol.
Most alcohol duties have been held at or below the general rise in prices in recent years, but Mr Darling is expected to go for bigger increases this year in an attempt to curb binge drinking.
Shadow chancellor George Osborne said Mr Darling should make sure tax increases on problem drinks were offset with a reduction on low-alcohol drinks.
39 Comments
Mr peace would make a better chancelor look what hes done for the baggies we make lots of money and reduces season ticket by 33%,the mans a finacial genius.
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this is nothing but black mail
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Darling is a complete and utter MUPPET!!!!!
The sooner he and Brown move back to Scotalnd the better!!!
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stop MPS expences they dont pay any increases they might think twice on all these taxes and no i dont have a 4×4
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if everyone but a green car i wonder what they would tax then rip off britain
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This “Government” ? ! is digging itself into an even bigger hole. Roll on the next election - I don’t normally vote, but I will to get this lot out.
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Lets do a survey on just how many MP’S ( and their employed family members )drive larger engined cars which we pay for in our taxes when they claim it back as expenses ….
I bought a green car and my tax never came down either , it was ford emerald green yet another fib from our government.
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4 x 4, sports cars and….Family cars! Well thats just about everyone then! I wonder how our government would pan out if they all got paid normal the average wage for the job they do, with normal average expense’s and did the job full time, we’d soon find the one’s that were in it to ensure this Country’s safety and its peoples welfare, rather than the ones going on a publicity drive - dont even start me on the Proms! The stoopid woman!
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The answer is, pack up and move abroad. The government is killing this country with high taxes and also filling it with unwanted foreigners, they can’t see this is just a small Island and want to pack any Tom Dick or Harry in like sardines in a can. I feel suicidal living in Britain, and I was born and bred here. Wish I could afford to move abroad, I would be gone like a shot
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£1000 for Road Tax, for family cars?!?!? This guy is insane! Lets shaft the working families even further shall we.
Force high polluting cars off the road. What a policy! So the best government policy is buy a car but keep it in the garage?
I’d like to see someone sue the government.
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And another thing…….
What the hell is going on with Alistair Darlings eyebrows ?
We should tax them! He looks like the old Iron filings face you used to draw beards on lol.
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no 7 bored in traffic no good having a survey of MPS they only lie they would have the nerve to say they wasnt driving even if on camera all MPS only have self interest anyway weve got to pay for the great chinese india and now afghanistan give away still it will help grow more poppies all in westminster are baffoons party
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I tell you what i know it*s only a dream for me but if i could leave this country tomorrow i could not go fast enough,,
All these mp*s think of is taxing the average working man to the hilt,,,if it*s not Cars it*s booze,,fags wage packets and even persciptions going up to over £7,,,yet people flock in here freeloading,,makes you wonder think if*s worth working,,,
No wonder this country has gone to the dogs when you look at the rabble that runs it,,,If joining the EU and being run by Brussels means that we get rid of these 660 odd halwits that run this country then lets dump the pound and pronto,,,,,,,,,…
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Helena,
Read it properly before going off on one. It says “family car if their vehicles are highly polluting”.
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Yet another tax hike, if the government wants to get these off the road why not ban the purchase or importatition of gas guzzlers, no its about making more cash. Just like the London “con”gestion charge it will gradually move to put up taxes on more and more cars each year….
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Cogburn, maybe you should read it more carefully! The term highly poluuting could mean anything. Remember how it was all targeted at 4×4, then MPVs. HMG doesn’t care about the vehicle only the cash and they will succer people like you in every time. I bet you were one of the first to agree about 4×4s. Well you read the figure. Most modern 4×4s are cleaner and more fuel efficient than most larger family saloons. I should know I fuel enough vehicles!
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cogburn who decides what a family car will be. anyway next time round they will be next to be taxed to the hilt if everyone gets rid of 4×4s the government always gets tax back low emmisions low tax so someones got to pay for the latter oh and i only drive a 1.4cc before the sandal brigade get off on this
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regards what sort of car it means, why the hell should we have to pay through the nose when immigrants come in and get everything for free.
i agree with martin- well done
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he is not english & should not be allowed to do this job,as they now have there own gov’,which the english subsidize with billions of pounds of our money,its a disgrace.
independence for england is only a matter of time.
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yet again all under the falseness that is climate change when in reality this is just another way of raising revenue now they have stopped everyone smoking.
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It isn’t the biggest gas-guzzlers that cause the most pollution, it’s the vehicles that are driven for the most miles irrespective of their size. So a fair tax would be on annual milage/engine size, not on engine size alone.
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I’m confused. I thought heavy polluting vehicles would most likely fail an MOT, so they wouldn’t be on the road anyhow (legally). So what is the magic figure the government will give as the pollutant level that makes all the difference?
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big trucks, 4 x 4’s, people carriers - get em off the road
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Make it £2000 !!!
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And how many average families do you know that can afford to buy a new less polluting car? As in comment number 10. Also, while we still have free speech in this country my friend Cogburn, I will ‘go off on one’ as you put it, as and when I choose. I, like everyone else was giving my opinion, so, 1) dont pick on me. 2) Dont make it personal and 3)Dont be so condesending!
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This is starting to get rather scary… how far do they think they can push the masses around like this through tax?
Its only a short time before its snaps back and causes big trouble, I just want a quiet simple life but this seems to become more unlikely as the years pass
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The greedy government strikes again!!!
Maybe next year they will start taxing air intake too.
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The next tax will be on the volume of air we breathe
and how many times we go to the toilet the persecution
will almost be complete then.
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This blokes determined to shove more and more people into poverty. Wages stay the same but everything else is going up, the government say they recognise this but then this slug browed muppet decides to make life even more difficult. Some of us have no option but to drive a car for various reasons and all the tree huggers can forget calling me a car loving planet destroyer because I hate being sat in traffic half of my day but its part and parcel of my job. From the tree huggers point of view I will agree that there is no need for BMW X5’s etc as cars for mum to drop the kids off to school in but punishing the masses for the chelsea tractor brigades indulgence is beyond contempt.
Labour used to be the party that stood up for the working man and I’m not ashamed to say I’ve voted for them in the past but this government is no longer the party it was supposed to be
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When we all get some balls and we all make a stand maybe those scottish muppets that think we have bottomless pockets will listen!
If everyone refused to pay tax wherer they going to put us all!Prison..lol they dont have enough cells,what they going to do if we boycott the fuel pumps for a weekend…hit their pockets..but people just keep on paying with out any direct action!..
So they will keep flogging us till our britsih spirit is dead!!!
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I drive A large engined vehicle due to the fact I tow a caravan on holiday twice a year , I also cycle to work all summer , with the current rises in road tax this will cerainly cause me to use my vehicle much more to get my moneys worth AS IT IS NOT VIABLE TO PAY £400 AND LEAVE THE CAR AT HOME The current gov are only interested in raising revenue without a thought for the motoring public, its about time for the public to unit against this inept gov.
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The Chancellor authorised the Bank of England to make 23 billion available to Northern Rock. The Bank of England is a company wholly owned by the Treasury on behalf of taxpayers. It is a relatively small bank, with total equity of just 1.8 billion, and a total balance sheet of around 40 billion before the Northern Rock crisis.
I ask the simple question where did the 23 billion come from Which account How will it be accounted for in the government’s reports to Parliament and the nation?
The answer has to be that the public sector has borrowed the money to lend to Northern Rock. I appreciate they believe they will be repaid it as some point But who is going to pay for it
yes us silly people that work and when we do any overtime and it goes it to a 40% bandind get clobbered yes i agree if i could be out this country i be gone tommorow
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Why is it that the government will allow small fuel and co2 efficient cars on our roads free of charge but somehow still tax small motorcycles that do up to 100 mpg and ease congestion in our cities.Truth is Gordon Brown and his gov do not care about saving the planet they just disgracfully use green issues as an excuse to tax more and more.
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I drive 2 cars and yes I own a 4×4 but only as I tow a caravan. I do only 1500 miles per year in it.
So I am meant to change my car to something smaller which is not as safe to tow a caravan. Maybe I
just sell up and go abroad on holiday twice a year, this will not help british tourism . I can then
buy a smaller car and can then afford to do more miles in. Hey what a great idea but how will that
help climate change.
What an Idiot Darling (or should I say Brown is). By forciung every car into this new Regime he will only alienate the public. If it was done on new cars then maybe yes we have a choice but not this way as most of us can only afford to budgert for a chnage of vehicle every 4 or so years.
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I own a landrover discovery td5, the sole reason for this vehicle is to tow a large caravan to try and have a cheap holiday in this country.
My road tax is currently £210 a year, rises to over £400 next year which means i may have to sell my caravan as well as my landrover.
These so called green people, Lets not forget the united Kingdom is 1% of the worlds population, stopping the whole country from driving cars is going to make jack difference to the world climate, what is the evidence the rest of the world is following us.
Lets close coal power stations and all heavy industry as this is more of a cause for climate change and its not from the uk either.
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No wonder why so many people are driving without road tax.
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Why are so many people complaining, people in this country need to get of their arse and do something about it. what happened to good old fashioned strikes. i am not a leader but would follow any great plan to sort out this government. it needs some strong people to plan as much disruption as poss and im sure there would be many followers
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well i read with interest all the comments it is all very well complaining but actions are louder than words. i drive a 4×4 and do not intend to take this robbery lying down.at least dick turpin wore a mask when on the rob, we know who is robbing us and as long as we as a country give them the green light to do so our pockets will suffer.
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So, this idiotic bunch of morons who laughably call themsleves a government (well, for a little while longer..) have wiped the values off most people’s family cars, are taxing them ’till they bleed and expect them then to find the thousands needed to fund a new tiny tin box car, even if there’s nothing wrong with the car they have, that may have lasted a few more years of loyal, safe motoring!!! How un-believable is that???!! How many more times are we the British people going to allow ourseleves to be punched in the face by these egotistical, megalamaniacs?? PLEASE everyone, let’s show them the door and quickly!
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