The Road Haulage Association has welcomed the Prime Minister’s announcement that fuel duty is to be frozen for another year.

Commenting, RHA chief executive Richard Burnett said: “As a founding member and funder of campaigning group FairFuelUK, I am pleased that our close collaboration has once again paid off”.

In September 2018, the Chancellor of the Exchequer suggested that the fuel duty freeze has been associated with lost revenue of approximately £46 billion over the 8 years since the first freeze in 2011. Not satisfied with this rationale for a duty increase, the RHA, together with FairFuelUK, commissioned the Centre for Economic and Business Research to produce an in-depth analysis to challenge his justification for a duty rise.

The CEBR analysis clearly demonstrates that a further duty freeze may actually help the Treasury save money. The freeze, first introduced in 2011 has, to date, saved £20 billion in consumer spending and put billions back into the economy creating a net gain, not a loss in tax revenue.

The news will also come as a relief to thousands of UK haulage operators working to incredibly tight margins. 

“However, it’s still a case of ‘good, but no cigar,” Richard Burnett continued. “While a freeze is welcome, what we really need is a fuel duty cut.”

At 57.95 pence per litre, the UK still has the highest level of fuel duty Europe, making it impossible to level the playing field with our European counterparts. The RHA is calling for an essential users’ rebate for lorries and other essential vehicles such as ambulances, to bring UK fuel duty into line with Germany: the EU’s most successful economy where fuel duty is 15 pence per litre cheaper.

To view the RHA, FairFuelUK commissioned CEBR report, ‘The impact of the fuel duty freeze on UK prices’, click here.

Road Haulage Association

About the Author: John Loughran