The Government announced its new spending plans last week — and while some areas are getting a boost, transport isn’t one of them. Day-to-day spending on transport is being cut by up to 5% over the next three years, while the NHS will see its funding grow by 3% each year until 2028/29.
This transport cut is one of the biggest in the new budget, second only to the Foreign Office, which is losing 6.9% of its funding (mostly from foreign aid).
But it’s not all bad news — especially if you’re interested in electric cars. The Government’s also set aside £1.4 billion over the next three years to speed up the UK’s move to EVs. Exactly how they’ll spend it isn’t totally clear yet, but one option being considered is changing the expensive car tax rules (VED) for electric cars — though any decision on that won’t come until at least the Autumn Budget.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers welcomed the news but said more still needs to be done to get people actually buying EVs. Mike Hawes, their CEO, said “Some support for EVs has [already] been made available, but more substantive measures to incentivise private consumer demand are still needed if world-leading targets are to be met.”
The Electric Vehicle Association (EVA) England agrees, but stressed that how the money is spent will make all the difference. Their chief exec, Vicky Edmonds, pointed out that VAT on public chargers and planning delays are creating a “two-tier” system — basically, if you can charge at home you’re better off than those relying on public charging.
To help with that, the Government is also putting £400 million into rolling out more public chargers. Right now, there are about 76,500 chargers installed across the UK — but they haven’t said yet whether they’ll cut VAT on public charging to help level the playing field.
On top of all this, £24 billion (roughly £8 billion a year) is being spent on repairing and maintaining major roads. The RAC’s head of policy, Simon Williams, called this “wonderful news” and said local councils now have a real chance to go beyond just filling potholes and start properly resurfacing and protecting the UK’s roads for the long term.
