It’s been a tough time for owners of larger vehicles as they have recently become the prime target of environmental lobbyists who are keen to see them driven off the roads completely.
In addition to already paying higher costs to buy or lease such vehicles, drivers must now pay much higher vehicle excise duty and, in an even more controversial move, significantly higher congestion charges if driving through central London.
However, the rises in car tax and congestion charges are alleged to be out of proportion to the amount of environmental damage done. Motoring organisations believe that the chancellor has targeted larger vehicles in order to significantly raise flagging tax revenues, and they are also highly critical of London Mayor Ken Livingstone’s decision to use ‘congestion’ charges to levy a further tax on bigger vehicles.
The current congestion charge of £8 per day is to be increased to £25 for drivers of vehicles that emit more than 225g of CO2 per kilometre, or have engine sizes in excess of three litres. As the congestion charge was originally imposed to cut traffic congestion, not greenhouse gasses, this had led to many within the motor industry to view this latest move by London Mayor Ken Livingstone as a cynical money-making exercise. It has also provoked the anger of many owners and users of larger vehicles.
Indeed, performance car manufacturer Porsche is so aggrieved that they are taking Mayor Livingstone to court in order to challenge the move. Many of their customers own sports cars that will be hit by the increased charges - due to become effective on October 27th - and the company believes the tax to be ‘disproportionate’ to the amount of damage done to the environment.
Even for more affluent, large car owners it means that driving to work in London may no longer be a financially viable option. The average daily cost of running a larger vehicle works out at £25 upwards per day. That figure is based on the total annual costs of fuel, maintenance, insurance, vehicle excise duty and an amount of car finance required to buy or lease the vehicle.
But, even that sum pales into insignificance for anyone needing to drive into central London each day to get to work. A congestion charge of £25 added to a colossal £50 per day parking fee, as well as the daily running costs, shoves the daily bill up to a staggering £100 per day. That means even allowing for four weeks holiday it would cost £24,000 per year just for the privilege of getting to work; almost equivalent to the current average annual UK wage.
In central London, at least, it appears that the environmental lobby will be successful in pricing large vehicles users off the roads. That may be cause for celebration for them but certainly not for those with large families on a lower income and for whom a bigger vehicle is essential. |
