Fuel duty cut??

[spindrift]

I was hoping for a link to an officially recognised site, not 1 that's an obvious personal web site that you threw in to add supposed weight to your argument!!

 

You don't officially recognise the British Government?

 

Which of the figures do you dispute?

[dawny1970]

you use a link from a 15 yr old study, like most things, times change and reports do the same as well!!

[spindrift]

for a more in depth analysis of fuel costs try the Road Danger Reduction Forum who recommend an increase in petrol duty.

 

 

http://rdrf.org.uk/

 

We have pointed out - and it appears we will have to keep on repeating ourselves – how much cheaper motoring in Britain has become over the last decade or so. This decline has not only occurred with a more recent increase in the cost of public transport, but with increases in the price of housing and a variety of other living costs – and this before austerity cuts begin to bite.

 

 

http://rdrf.org.uk/2011/01/266/

[Mecky]

morrisons at meadowhead WAS 130.9, its just gone up to 131.9, and with the penny off, its back to where it was, talk about being royally ripped off here!!!!

 

That's because most retailers do the same; I call it the squeeze. Retailers always start sticking money on things round about February or early March and generally put them up even more at Budget time. However, it seems a lot of people fail to notice this.

[davyboy]

It wouldn't help on the keeping-earth-in-a-habitable-state front. Burning petrol incurs hideous environmental costs.

 

It is alleged

[spindrift]

you use a link from a 15 yr old study, like most things, times change and reports do the same as well!!

 

Do you think motoring has declined or risen in 15 years?

 

If it has risen (here's clue, it has!) then the external costs are much higher than posted, so the subsidy to motorists is even greater.

 

(

[whitehorses]

It's better than a rise I suppose, but actually they put up fuel so much that now they have cut it by 1p we're all supposed to applaud and be really grateful.

[spindrift]

The real costs of road transport

1.1 Official statistics show that between 1987 and 2000, although petrol and oil prices had increased by 45%, and tax and insurance payments by over 40%, the total costs of motoring in real terms had risen by only 5.6-7.2%. [1] The same figures also reveal that bus and coach fares increased by 18%, and rail fares by 21%, in real terms. Therefore, motoring costs have increased hardly at all despite the fuel duty escalator - while public transport users have faced increases 2-4 times those faced by motorists.

 

 

 

1.2 Taking a longer timescale, motorists have been even better off, and public transport users even worse. George Monbiot wrote in The Guardian recently: "While average disposable income over the past 25 years has massively increased, the cost of driving in real terms has remained unchanged. Bus fares, by contrast, have risen by 87 per cent and train fares by 53 per cent. Our train journeys are now the most expensive on earth, costing some three times more per mile than the Spanish or Italians pay. British drivers are charged more for their fuel than motorists elsewhere, but they don't pay road tolls. The truth is that Britain's vehicles are massively subsidised by those of us who don't own one." [2] [3]

 

 

 

The hidden costs

1.3 Not only has the "real" cost of motoring not increased significantly in statistical terms; but these statistics don't even reflect what economists call the "external" costs of road use - chiefly the costs of road damage, accident and emergency services, health effects of air and noise pollution, and the economic impacts of climate change.

 

1.4 The annual costs attributable to road transport include:

 

Roadbuilding £6bn [4]

 

Noise £2.6bn [5]

 

Congestion costs £19.1bn [6]

 

Road damage £1.5bn [7]

 

Accidents £2.9bn [8]

 

Health impacts £11.1bn [9] [10] [11]

 

TOTAL £43.2bn [12] [13]

 

 

 

1.5 These are conservative estimates; if the upper estimates are taken, the total is £50.2bn. The roads bring in £32bn revenue a year. [14] Therefore the roads are being subsidised to the tune of £11.2bn-£17.2bn a year. Note that some of the above figures were 1993 calculations, and will require upward revision for inflation. Moreover, these figures don't include any allowance either for land-use subsidies to motorists [15], or for transport's contribution to climate change. The latter could cost the UK billions in the coming decade.

 

http://www.greenparty.org.uk/files/reports/2004/FAIR%20ON%20FUEL,%20fair%20on%20the%20future%20Jun%2004.htm

[Meaks]

By cutting fuel duty the ConDems are pretending that high fuel prices are temporary, rather than inevitable.

 

In reality petrol is a dwindling resource and we need to help people with alternatives, such as public transport. Osborne could find £2 billion for petrol, but there was not a penny today for buses or trains.

[scoobydotcom]

I was surprised to learn that, of the price we pay at the pump for fuel, 80% of it in 2001 was tax .... its dropped to 62% now