Chancellor panders to motoring lobby with extension of fuel duty freeze
30 October 2024

Two days before the Budget, the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, announced that the cap on bus fares would be raised from £2 to £3. It is difficult to work out exactly what this hike in bus fares will save the Treasury, but it is probably less than £1 billion per annum.

Now, in the Budget, the Chancellor has announced that she is going to freeze the duty on motor fuels for at least another year at a cost to the Treasury of £3 billion in 2025. This continues more than a decade of fuel duty freezes, or rather a 5 pence per litre reduction after Rishi Sunak’s giveaway in 2022.

In the words of the report in the Independent newspaper, "Rachel Reeves said it would be the “wrong choice” to increase fuel duty next year, saying she would continue the freeze and maintain the temporary 5p cut for another year. She told MPs during the Budget she has to “take some very difficult decisions” on tax, and noted to retain the 5p cut and freeze fuel duty again would cost more than £3 billion next year. This means the 5p per litre cut in fuel duty introduced by the Conservative government in March 2022 will continue.”

It is the height of hypocrisy for Ms Reeves to say that this was a "difficult decision" when, in fact, she has simply rolled over and given in to the ever powerful motoring lobby. Bus fares up, motoring costs frozen! As a consequence, bus passenger numbers will continue to stagnate or decline while motoring mileages will continue their inexorable rise. What chance that we will make any significant progress towards net zero? None whatsoever. We are all doomed.

Update
10 November 2024

Even Private Eye magazine has pointed out the absurdity of raising the bus fare cap by 50% whilst continuing the fuel duty freeze. See below.