Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) car tax increases are just around the corner with millions of petrol and diesel owners set to be unfairly slapped with higher bills.
Finance experts at Pete Barden claim charges will rise by around six percent which will add an extra tenner here or £20 there to everyone’s bills depending on how polluting their car is.
VED rises aren’t new with fees rising with Retail Price Index (RPI) inflation annually. But 2024 is no normal year for motorists who must be left feeling punched from all corners as fees rise across the board.
Earlier this week, data from Confused.com found that a whopping 63 percent of drivers have seen their motoring costs increase over the past 12 months.
This has even led to one in five road users considering ditching their car altogether at some point over the past year.
It’s simple to see why with the cost of motoring now at unsustainable levels across almost every indicator.
Car insurance fees are said to be at “record-breaking” levels with average premiums standing at a whopping £995 this year.
Fuel is down slightly on the bonkers prices drivers were paying back in 2022 but rates are still higher than back in 2021.
Unleaded petrol averages are now at a whopping 20p higher than pre-pandemic levels meaning drivers are still paying more than ever.
Throw into the mix Clean Air Zone fees hitting combustion drivers across seven major UK cities, higher MOT and servicing costs and increased parking charges and drivers are already at boiling point even before VED rates are considered.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has justified the latest increase because fees will “remain unchanged” as it rises with inflation.
However, data from the Office for National Statistics shows that not every employer is likely to have dished out a six percent wage rise.
Data shows that the annual growth rate for regular earnings (excluding bonuses) was 6.1 percent between November 2023 to January 2024.
However, looking over the last three months with the previous three months and then annualising this growth rate shows weekly earnings grew by 3.5 percent.
Petrol and diesel owners are once again targeted for simply having a combustion vehicle under the new plans with EV owners getting away with fees for another year.
But with most affordable electric cars sold in the UK still around the £25,000 mark, it is untenable for almost every cash-strapped family to afford one.
Anyway, how can motorists save up to make the switch to EVs when all their hard-earned money is spent on keeping their current car on the road?
