Howard Cox the founder of FairFuelUK shares his views with our community following the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement.

It would be churlish for me on behalf of 1.7m supporters not to welcome the continuing freeze in the regressive fuel tax, but I am alarmed that this freeze still may not be prolonged past the 2023 Spring Budget. This Government continues to be fiscally inept and ignores the need to increase all our disposable incomes. That single act would ease the cost-of-living crisis.

So why not Cut Fuel Duty? They never give a reason this tax reduction is wrong, they simply dont do it! All independent economists say it would cut inflation, increase wages, deliver business investment, grow GDP and most importantly more growth tax receipts. Why not try it for 12 months and see if it benefits the economy? No answer is the stern reply!

The OBR say global influences are the primary cause of our high inflation, our major fiscal enemy repeatedly espoused by Rishi Sunak to be the main priority to act upon, in getting him into No 10. But yet again the 4th Chancellor of 2022 missed an open goal by not cutting Fuel Duty significantly and taking on this dangerous economic adversary head on. The act of reducing the cost of filling up alone, would reduce inflation immediately and put more money into consumer spending.

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And why does this Government continue to ignore the chronic opportunistic profiteering in the fuel supply chain, by not introducing PumpWatch. Cutting duty and making pump pricing transparent and fair, would make inflation plummet. They are popular vote winning tactics. Yet once in Cabinet, these proven principles are dumped by Ministers in favour of fiscal myopia and baseless green idealism.

I am very pleased a VED tax is, at last, to be placed on all Electric Vehicles. That’s fair and recognises that petrol and diesel drivers that use our pothole infested and congested roads, should not be the only cash cows so relied upon for decades to pad out the coffers in the Treasury.

I repeat the request to meet with the Chancellor made in Jonathan Gullis’s letter of November 16th to the Chancellor, signed by 20+ Tory MPS including Priti Patel, SIr John Redwood and Sir Graham Brady, to meet with me to discuss the future of road user taxation and PumpWatch.