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Green Budget Won't Reduce Emissions, Says Toomey Opticar

Despite its ‘green’ focus, this year’s address to the Commons by chancellor Alistair Darling, Toomey Opticar’s Jim Salkeld believes it was a disappointing budget for the planet that in reality will do little to reduce CO2 emissions from traffic. 

“Despite positive messages for company car fleets,” he says, “with continued incentives and penalties by way of CCT and Capital Allowance relief, there was nothing to reduce fuel usage that is at the heart of the problem.  Delaying the promised 2p per litre levy was not helpful in this respect, and we need some serious debate to shift taxation from direct (income as well as business) to a carbon levy at the point of purchase.  Drivers of band G cars may be inconvenienced by increasing GVED over the next two years, but this will hardly register in the whole life costs of such vehicles. Indeed, for the wannabes an older, dirtier car (pre-March 2001) is the obvious solution. 

“Statistically the emissions of all these cars combined would not appear on any scale to two decimal places when compared to total traffic emissions.  On the positive side, confirmation that AMAP rates remain unchanged will be welcomed by fleet buyers and managers alike, who have suffered in recent years as a direct consequence of this uncertainty.”

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