Better than the last lot?
June 1st 2010 Roger Williams reflects on ways the new government might impact transport, covering a fair fuel stabiliser,empty rates and foreign hauliers paying their way
It’s probably true to say that coalition government is a strange concept to us all, but how quickly we have accepted it. Barely a month ago an unnamed senior Conservative was describing the Lib Dems as an irrelevant bunch of left wing, woolly headed activists with absolutely no chance of exercising power in his lifetime, while Vince Cable was quoted as saying he hated the Tories. Roll forward a few weeks and Vince Cable is the Secretary of State for Business in a Tory dominated government.
With politicians like Dr Cable and others seemingly willing and happy to put their convictions and beliefs to one side in the pursuit of power, there seems every chance that the coalition will last longer than many have forecast. So what can the logistics industry expect from the ‘new politics’?
Unfortunately, some of the flagship policies of the pre-election Conservative manifesto appear to have been quietly dropped or at least diluted since the party’s successful courtship of the Lib- Dems.
The fact that the Tories’ pledge to introduce a ‘fair fuel stabiliser’ which would, in theory, monitor the cost of fuel and save transport businesses thousands of pounds a year by cutting fuel duty when oil prices rise and vice versa, appears to have slipped off the agenda for the coming Parliament, is particularly regrettable.
After years of Labour taxes on fuel that did so much to undermine the UK haulage industry, the sector was expecting some relief from the Conservatives.We will have to wait until George Osborne’s emergency budget until we know for certain, but, as details of the country’s shocking debt levels continue to emerge, it seems increasingly likely that the public sector will suck up any funds that may have been made available to lower the fuel tax burden.
There are other areas too that impact on the sector where there appears to be little hope of the disastrous policies of the previous administration being quickly reversed.
For example, when warehouses became subject to empty property rates (EPR) in 2008 the third party logistics industry, led by the UKWA, expressed considerable concern about the impact that this legislation would have on the business carried on by its members. These fears have subsequently proved welljustified. The cost of EPR (a 100% rate liability on warehouses which have been empty for over six months) has been a major deterrent preventing speculative warehouse construction. This means that when the recession finally ends there will inevitably be a shortage of warehouse accommodation and rents will rise significantly. The impact of EPR on the industrial property sector is not scheduled to be reviewed.
However, there are positive signs too. The coalition is proposing the ‘introduction of a new system of HGV road user charging to ensure a fairer arrangement for UK hauliers.’Most observers have taken this to mean an end to the tax system that allows foreign hauliers to use UK roads free of charge. Such a step is many years overdue and would be welcomed by the industry, after the Labour Government’s stubborn refusal to acknowledge or act on the problem.
The move would go some way toward creating a more level playing field for UK hauliers and might even allow Secretary of State for Transport, Philip Hammond, to convince logistics service operators that the Government is serious about helping the industry and it is only the budget deficit that is delaying the injection of any meaningful financial assistance into the sector. More articles from Handling & Storage Solutions: | 
