Additional tax hikes for hauliers will put businesses and the economy at risk

The Road Haulage Association is shocked at Labour’s Shadow Treasury team’s call for even more taxes be piled upon the haulage industry – the sector responsible for the movement of 98% of all goods consumed in the UK.

Commenting, RHA chief executive Richard Burnett said: “Britain’s hauliers already pay some of the highest taxes in Europe. The suggestion that a Labour Government would massively increase taxes on the movement of goods is beyond belief.. It will undermine the competitiveness of all UK industry and ramp up inflationary pressures”.

“It is clear from his comments that Labour’s Treasury Frontbencher, Clive Lewis, sees our industry as ‘the bad guys – the emission bandits’. Nothing could be further from the truth. For years we have been extolling the virtues of the industry’s new, cleaner, trucks but it’s clear that the Shadow Chancellor has no idea as to the importance of the industry on the which people and businesses of the UK depend. We shall be seeking a meeting with his team as soon as possible to give them the clarity that is so obviously lacking.

“These latest proposals are a further own goal as they will undermine the sector’s massive ongoing investment in newer cleaner vehicles. What is even more shocking is the cavalier approach of Mr Lewis who is content “see HGV businesses go out of business” as a direct consequence of this tax hike.

“These proposals are also at odds with comments made by the Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, Andy McDonald at the RHA’s Parliamentary reception at the end of October when he praised the work of the industry, affirming its position as the business sector on which the rest of the economy so heavily relies.

“Labour’s aspirations to land British hauliers with an enormous bill of £6bn pa (over £12,096 a year per lorry) is, at best, naïve. And it won’t just be the haulage industry that pays, everyone that relies on trucks to keep manufacturers, supermarkets, schools and hospitals going will be hit.

“This is a dangerous game and these latest proposals will simply alienate the 2.5 million potential voters employed within the industry – votes on which the Labour Party so strongly depends.”