5p cut in tax on fuel.

[whole diary]

[grahame]

I can understand why fuel duty has been cut by 5p / litre, but I can't help feeling that it does not help the environmental / sustainable / climate agenda, nor encourage people to(wards) greener public transport.

[broadgage]

I agree, petrol and diesel prices are at a record high, BUT only slightly in excess of levels reached about 10 years ago.

I wish that train and bus fares had been held down to levels only slightly above those charged 10 years ago, many have doubled.

The climate emergency is now very last year, with government policies that make motoring cheaper and trains ever more expensive.

[bradshaw]

Marion and I probably drive around 100 miles per week. Our car is a Yaris automatic doing around 10 miles per litre. So our saving is 50p per week! Meanwhile, our electricity supplier has give notice that our expected bill will rise by almost £900 next year. This covers all our energy costs as the village has no gas supply.
All this to be funded by the 3.1% pension increase at a time of almost 8% inflation

[TaplowGreen]

I can understand why fuel duty has been cut by 5p / litre, but I can't help feeling that it does not help the environmental / sustainable / climate agenda, nor encourage people to(wards) greener public transport.

Not everything can be subservient to the green agenda and it can't always be the primary consideration.

There are (for example) people who live in (often poorer) rural areas with little or no access to public transport who have no choice but to drive, and/or need their vehicles for work.

[Richard Fairhurst]

As someone who lives in a rural area, I'd be much more able to travel by public transport if our district council subsidised buses to the same extent they subsidise car parking.

[broadgage]

I can understand why fuel duty has been cut by 5p / litre, but I can't help feeling that it does not help the environmental / sustainable / climate agenda, nor encourage people to(wards) greener public transport.

Not everything can be subservient to the green agenda and it can't always be the primary consideration.

There are (for example) people who live in (often poorer) rural areas with little or no access to public transport who have no choice but to drive, and/or need their vehicles for work.

Presumably no worries about those in poorer areas who are reliant on public transport for work ? bus and train fares have roughly doubled during the time that petrol prices have increased only slightly.

[TaplowGreen]

I can understand why fuel duty has been cut by 5p / litre, but I can't help feeling that it does not help the environmental / sustainable / climate agenda, nor encourage people to(wards) greener public transport.

Not everything can be subservient to the green agenda and it can't always be the primary consideration.

There are (for example) people who live in (often poorer) rural areas with little or no access to public transport who have no choice but to drive, and/or need their vehicles for work.

Presumably no worries about those in poorer areas who are reliant on public transport for work ? bus and train fares have roughly doubled during the time that petrol prices have increased only slightly.

A fair point but a different argument. Ideally the issues of high bus & rail fares should also be addressed.

[Red Squirrel]

I can understand why fuel duty has been cut by 5p / litre, but I can't help feeling that it does not help the environmental / sustainable / climate agenda, nor encourage people to(wards) greener public transport.

Not everything can be subservient to the green agenda and it can't always be the primary consideration.

There are (for example) people who live in (often poorer) rural areas with little or no access to public transport who have no choice but to drive, and/or need their vehicles for work.

Fair points, up to a point. But in Sunak's statement the green agenda wasn't a primary, secondary or even a tertiary consideration: it wasn't a consideration at all. This at a time when polar temperatures have been more than 30 Celsius above normal.

And who gets the most benefit from a blunt reduction in fuel duty? Poorer people with smaller more fuel-efficient cars, or wealthier people with larger, less-efficient vehicles?

[JayMac]

And who gets the most benefit from a blunt reduction in fuel duty? Poorer people with smaller more fuel-efficient cars, or wealthier people with larger, less-efficient vehicles?

Hauliers keeping the country fed, clothed, medicated...?

[Robin Summerhill]

And who gets the most benefit from a blunt reduction in fuel duty? Poorer people with smaller more fuel-efficient cars, or wealthier people with larger, less-efficient vehicles?

Hauliers keeping the country fed, clothed, medicated...?

You beat ne to it 

In addition, looking at it purely in terms of fuel costs vs. public transport is also too simplistic for other reasons.

There are many places in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) that never had a train service even before Beeching. Here are also many places that have ever had a bus service, or at least a direct one. In my part of the world, for example, here has never been a bus service between Cricklade and Wootton Bassett, or between Malmesbury and Cricklade. People wanting to make journeys like these have always had a difficult time until private cars came along.

Furthermore, for the last 50 to 60 years this country in common with others has developed edge-of-town shopping malls which are almost totally reliant on the private car. Their growth, not exactly helped by local authorities introducing parking restrictions and imposing prohibitive business rate levels, has resulted in many High Streets no longer fulfilling their traditional function; if you want to buy a coffee or visit a charity shop – fine – if you want to buy a washing machine forget it...

Now we can wring our hands all  we like about how all this is “wrong” and how some ethereal “they” or other should do something about it, but as Walter Cronkite used to say ”That’s the way it is.”

Next time you have a chance, sit on a roadside bench and see who is driving by. The number of well-heeled driving gas guzzlers will be few. Most people will be like you or me, or what you or me used to be with a young family and a mortgage, who are now seeing gas, electricity, petrol and diesel prices going through the roof, inflation beginning to be noticeable in shops like it was in the bad old days.

Don’t bother telling them that they shouldn’t be driving because it harms the planet. They already know that – what they probably don’t know is where the money for the next electric bill is coming from, and right at this moment  they are worrying more about the latter than the former

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs springs to mind.

[broadgage]

The way to help the working poor who struggle to pay for basics is in my view to increase the minimum wage and to reduce income tax and national insurance payable by those on the minimum wage.
I can not agree with reducing petrol duty as this only benefits those who drive and does not help those paying ever rising fares.

The way to help the not working poor is a general modest increase in benefits. I can not support reducing petrol duty for the same reasons as above.

At a time of rapidly increasing gas and oil prices, I doubt that the government can FULLY protect any sector of the population against such increases, but they can help a bit.

The era of cheap fossil fuels is over. And many people will have to make changes, including.
Walking or cycling instead of driving whenever possible.
When driving is unavoidable, drive carefully to save fuel.
Make fuel economy the first priority when buying a vehicle.
Do not overheat your home, no one in normal health needs a space temperature higher than 22 degrees, 16 degrees at night.

[TaplowGreen]

The way to help the working poor who struggle to pay for basics is in my view to increase the minimum wage and to reduce income tax and national insurance payable by those on the minimum wage.
I can not agree with reducing petrol duty as this only benefits those who drive and does not help those paying ever rising fares.

The way to help the not working poor is a general modest increase in benefits. I can not support reducing petrol duty for the same reasons as above.

At a time of rapidly increasing gas and oil prices, I doubt that the government can FULLY protect any sector of the population against such increases, but they can help a bit.

The era of cheap fossil fuels is over. And many people will have to make changes, including.
Walking or cycling instead of driving whenever possible.
When driving is unavoidable, drive carefully to save fuel.
Make fuel economy the first priority when buying a vehicle.
Do not overheat your home, no one in normal health needs a space temperature higher than 22 degrees, 16 degrees at night.

The living wage is rising by 6.6%, and the NI threshold is rising from £9,880 to £12,570 in July

[JayMac]

... and the state pension and welfare benefits will rise by just 3.1%. Nowhere near matching the rise in the cost of living.

[eXPassenger]

The way to help the working poor who struggle to pay for basics is in my view to increase the minimum wage and to reduce income tax and national insurance payable by those on the minimum wage.

To an extent he has done this.  An individual on the National Living Wage working a 40 hour week earns £19,760 a year.  With tax and NI thresholds at £12,750 the tax and NI will cost £2,390 an effective rate of 12%.  I agree that any additional earnings will attract a marginal rate of 33%.

[broadgage]

... and the state pension and welfare benefits will rise by just 3.1%. Nowhere near matching the rise in the cost of living.

In my view, a larger increase should have been made.
I doubt that the government can FULLY protect any group against rapidly increasing world prices for fossil fuels, but they should in my view have gone a bit further than 3.1%