Profiteering government must put plans in place to stem misery of UK motorists
The government failed the UK public because it sat back and raked in cash from record oil prices without putting plans in place to help the plight of millions of motorists. That’s the view of a leading online motoring organisation which is called on the government to act quickly and decisively to draw up plans to pump some of its petrol windfall back into the transport infrastructure. www.mammothcars.com estimates that the government was earning an extra £2bn per year on VAT alone compared with this time last year – from rising petrol prices. But it seems content to sit on the extra cash without devising any sort of plan about how the money could be invested back into the economy to improve the UK’s road, rail and air network. The company’s marketing director Jon Kirk accused the government of double standards because he believes that if such a windfall related to either health or education, ministers would be quicker than greased lightening to get on TV and announce how they intended to spend the money. "Once again transport is the poor relation when it comes to government policy because it has very clear ideas on how to spend record amounts of taxpayers’ money on health and education but it doesn’t have a clue when it comes to transport," he said. "The government is making extra cash hand over fist from rising fuel prices as petrol prices reached £1.20 a litre but it is failing in its responsibility to set out a vision for how that money can be used to make significant improvements which will benefit users of cars, bikes, trains and planes. "It feels like motorists are the cash cow of the UK economy because drivers have to buy fuel and pay tax on their cars and the money they are forking out for both is rising dramatically and they have nothing to show for it as a result." Kirk points to the fact that the government is currently spending approximately £20bn per year on transport and at current rates it is raising £9bn from VAT alone. It also collects duty which is approximately three times the amount of VAT on a litre of petrol. This means the government is currently raising an estimated £35bn from sales of petrol and diesel alone. "This is an astronomical amount of money in itself and doesn’t take into account new car tax increases or Vehicle Excise Duty – which is about to go through the roof because of increases that will double in some instances and 43% of motorists will be worse off," said Kirk. "And all this revenue is being generated by hitting the pockets of motorists but the government doesn’t appear to be giving anything back; either directly to ease the financial burden or by setting out a vision to invest the extra money wisely so it will benefit everyone. "At every turn the government says that increases are to help the environment but there seems to be little evidence that the money is being used for that either." Kirk thinks that the government is out of touch with the public and if it were a company it would be on the brink of going bust because it is riding roughshod over the needs of its customers. "We are in business because we offer motorists a service to get the best deal possible on a new car," said Kirk. "And we will only stay in business by continuing to do just that. "But the government seems to be operating in exactly the opposite way. It feels as if the government couldn’t give a stuff about its ‘customers’ and is willingly ripping them off because all it cares about is boosting its own coffers." But maybe the signs of customer unrest are becoming more obvious. Fuel protests, particularly from the haulage industry, were happening across the UK and the motoring media were starting to encourage the public to be more vocal in its discontentment. Recently, the motoring magazine Whatcar? posted a petition on the Prime Minister’s website calling for the extra VAT revenue to be spent on renewable energy or improving transport with spending on roads, infrastructure and public transport. "In the bigger scheme of things it’s not a big ask," concluded Kirk. "The government’s total budget for the current financial year is somewhere just shy of £600bn, so the £2bn it is raising from the extra VAT is small change. "We know it’s not the government’s fault that fuel prices are rising but it is not helping itself or us to ease the pain. We are not naive in expecting the Chancellor to drop the levels of duty, although that would be very welcome, but the Exchequer is hoarding our cash without stepping up to the plate and saying what the government intends to do with it to improve things for the electorate."
About the Author: Jon Kirk, Marketing Director at mammothcars.com has over 12 year's experience in internet marketing within the financial services and automotive sectors. He was responsible for the development of Norwich Union Direct's online car and home insurance products during the 90's before being a founding director of car insurance broker its4me.co.uk, sold to Swinton Insurance in late 2006. Jon has been in the automotive sector in the marketing of car broker uknewcars.com and mammothcars.com websites
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