Road Haulage Industry — 21 Apr 1999

I beg to move,

That this House condemns the Government's utter failure to acknowledge the crisis in the UK road haulage industry; notes that, despite promising not to raise taxes, Labour have done so in their first three Budgets, so that the Government is raising over £9 billion more from British road users than under the Conservative Government's plans and that the UK now has the highest fuel duties and vehicle excise duties in Europe, which now far exceed any environmental justification; further notes that they have created a crippling costs disadvantage for UK hauliers against their EU competitors, are forcing the closure or bankruptcy of many UK hauliers and inflating the costs of industries that are dependent upon road haulage; deplores the way in which the Government has sought to misuse figures produced by KPMG that are of no relevance to the situation that faces UK road hauliers and notes that independent analysis forecasts that 53,000 jobs will be lost from the UK road haulage industry over the next three years if government policies remain unchanged; commends the Conservatives' BRIT disc proposal as a first step towards reducing the competitive disadvantage faced by UK road hauliers; and urges the Government to end its complacency and refusal to listen to the road haulage industry and to acknowledge that fuel duties and vehicle excise duties are too high as a result of its policies.

I beg to move, To leave out from "House" to the end of the Question, and to add instead thereof:

"believes that everyone, including hauliers, must play their part in reducing emissions of carbon dioxide from transport, and that the road fuel duty escalator first introduced by the last Government acts as an incentive to greater fuel efficiency; deplores the hypocrisy of the Conservative Party for doing one thing in Government and another in Opposition; calls on it to explain which areas of public spending it would cut in order to pay for the abandonment of the

On the same day, he went on to justify the escalator further. I do not know whether he can remember this speech, but he said:

"The fact is that 20 per cent. of carbon emissions in the United Kingdom come from road transport, and a large increase in emissions is forecast by the end of the century; so transport must contribute to any strategy to reduce carbon dioxide emissions."--[ Official Report , 23 January 1995; Vol. 253, c. 98-103.]

Question put, That the original words stand part of the Question:--

The House divided: Ayes 139, Noes 341.

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