Hard working families across Lichfield district will find it even tougher to cope with the soaring cost of living, Christopher Pincher, Shenstone, Stonnall & Elford’s Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman warned this week, thanks to Gordon Brown’s plans to hike taxes on family cars.

And in many communities where local shops and post offices have already disappeared a car is not a luxury, it is an essential for many people.

Fuel prices at the pump are rocketing and households face spiralling gas and electricity bills on top of ever-higher council tax. The cost of driving a car will soon be even more expensive. Low-income households in rural communities will be the hardest hit, just as they have been with the 10p income tax hikes.

The Government is to change the way that Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) is calculated to raise an extra £2.5billion for Gordon Brown’s coffers. Family cars face higher VED as well as a ‘showroom tax’ for new cars. The VED tax will be retrospective – so any car bought after 2001 will be hit by the higher tax rates. This will lead in turn to a plummeting re-sale price for second-hand cars. This will make it more difficult for people to replace their car and upgrade to a new or better one.

For example, the tax bill for a typical Ford Mondeo will rise from £210 to £310 a year, with a new £500 showroom tax on top. Yet, even the Government’s own estimates show that carbon dioxide emissions from motoring will hardly be cut at all.  Even a Nissan Micra will soon cost £200 to tax.

Mr. Pincher said:

 “At a time when families are feeling the pinch of the rocketing cost of living – because of higher food prices, energy bills and council tax – the Government should scrap its plans for a big increase in road tax on family cars.”

 
 “Conservatives have consistently opposed these measures. The Government must execute a sharp U-turn. Any change in road tax should focus only on the most polluting vehicles, and be offset by equivalent reductions in family taxes.”

 
 “I am collecting petition signatures against the VED proposals which I will take to Gordon Brown.  We have already delivered “cost of living” petitions to Shenstone, Clifton Campville and Haunton and have had an excellent response.  We will visit more villages in the coming weeks.  County Councillor Matthew Ellis and I are determined to campaign on what matters to local people.”