Everything drivers need to know from Autumn Budget 2024 – including road tax HIKE, fuel duty win and potholes bashed
THE 2024 Autumn Budget is in the books and there was plenty in it for drivers to look out for.
From a hefty hike in road tax to a big win on fuel duty, here’s everything motorists can expect in the coming months.
In her speech yesterday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves sought to fill what Labour is claiming was a £22 billion “black hole” in the public finances leftover by the previous government.
To do this, Ms Reeves announced one of the largest single tax grabs in history by upping National Insurance contributions for employers.
But, with the Budget raising more than £40 billion in tax and introducing a raft of spending plans, there were plenty more measures beneath that headline hike – some of which will impact drivers up and down the country for years to come.
Road tax
One of the most contentious issues coming into the Budget was road tax, with reports of a potential switch to a pay-per-mile system prompting a backlash from drivers.
But after SunMotors reported that this move had been ruled out by ministers, attention turned to the issue of making up for lost road tax (VED) receipts as a result of an exemption for EVs.
To plug this gap, Ms Reeves pledged to alter VED rates, which were already set to rise with inflation, in order to “strengthen incentives to purchase zero-emission and electric cars“.
Budget tax ‘boosts’ are Small Beer compared to £40BILLION of tax misery YOU need to plug
By Ryan Sabey, Deputy Political Editor
Rachel Reeves has used her first Budget to embark on a massive £40 billion tax raid – with only small relief for hard-working Brits.
The Chancellor told the country that there would be short-term pain before any gain at the start of a ten-year plan for Britain.
Treasury sources have been saying there would be no rabbits out of the hat – but there was one for workers.
But there will be a wait. Income tax thresholds will go up with inflation from 2029 leaving more money in the pockets of people going out to work.
There will be major relief to motorists too who will see fuel duty frozen for yet another year – thanks to The Sun’s Keep It Down campaign.
Yes, change won’t happen overnight if anyone is expecting to actually feel better off soon.
And with growth forecast to be less than 2 per cent for the next few years, there could be more tax raids and savings on the way.
This Labour government had put growth at the very heart of its plans for office.
But the biggest hit will come to business. Some £25 billion a year by the end of the decade will come from a rise to employer national insurance contributions.
But to help small businesses there will be exemptions for those firms who employ four or fewer workers.
Ultimately, experts say the tax rise will be felt by ALL of us in the form of lower wage rises, as employers look to balance the books.
Despite some concern in the hospitality industry, there will be in part relief as she confirmed “a penny off a pint in the pub”.
Some will say that is small beer
EV owners will see themselves dragged into paying the tax from April next year, with those worth over £40,000 also paying the £410 Expensive Car Supplement.
But the Budget document confirms that drivers of zero-emission vehicles will pay the lowest band rate – just £10 a year.
Yet drivers of petrol and diesel vehicles will see their rates of tax as much as double from April 1 in what some experts have called a “stealth tax” on traditional vehicles.
Even the least polluting motors, emitting up to 50g of C02 per kilometre, will have their payments increased from £10 to £110 each year.
Likewise, the next band up will go from £30 to £130.
This will hit owners of hybrid and other low-emission vehicles who may not yet have wanted to make the full switch to electric.
The story is even worse higher up the scale, as cars with the average emission rating of 132g/km will see bills leap from £270 to £540.
Plus those with larger vehicles emitting over 150g/km will see their rate double from £680 to £1,360.
And the haulage industry is up in arms as it was announced that the highest band of VED, which is largely borne by HGVs, will go from £2,745 to £5,490.
Nicholas Lyles, policy director at IAM RoadSmart, said: “Increasing vehicle excise duty on all but zero-emission vehicles in the first year will hit those buying new conventional vehicles in the pocket.
“A better solution to incentivise the take-up of electric vehicles would have been to cut VAT on the sale of new electric vehicles with list price of £40,000 and under.”
Fuel duty
Fortunately, it wasn’t all doom and gloom for drivers – and there was a big win for The Sun’s Keep It Down Campaign.
There had been fears that Ms Reeves would reverse the temporary 5p cut in fuel duty, brought in by the Johnson Government in 2022.
Some experts had even suggested that she might add an extra 5p on top of that, hammering Brits at the pumps.
Thankfully, though, the Chancellor confirmed that the cut would be retained and extended the freeze on fuel duty, which has been in place since 2011.
The move means that the rate will remain at 52.95p per litre of petrol or diesel for another year.
The Sun's 14-year campaign to freeze fuel duty
The Sun has backed drivers as part of the Keep It Down campaign with rates of fuel duty not rising since the start of 2011.
Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt earlier this year thanked Sun readers for helping him to make the case to freeze fuel duty in his last Budget.
The freeze meant drivers would not have to face a potential £100 rise in motoring costs as a result of a 12p per litre duty hike.
Our decade-long campaign fights on behalf of readers to freeze duty on petrol and diesel to help deal with rising living costs.
Mr Hunt said: “I know how much Sun readers are feeling the pinch right now.
“Whether you drive a van, a hatchback or a people carrier I know how much you need to be on the road.
“Keeping it down means hard-working people will have an extra £100 this year without having to cut down using their vehicle.”
Howard Cox, head of FairFuel UK, commented: “I am delighted that Rachel Reeves has listened to FairFuelUK supporters and her Party MPs’ constituents.
“She finally recognises that keeping Fuel Duty frozen is at the core of a laudable journey to economic growth.
“But please don’t rest on your laurels.
“Start incentivising the UK’s 37 million drivers and stop seeing them as an easy cash cow.”
Potholes
A highlight of the run-up to the Budget was ministers’ decision to change the fiscal rules, allowing the Treasury to borrow more over the coming years.
The Government has pledged that the extra cash will be used to boost investment in infrastructure and growth projects, rather than to fund day-to-day spending.
As part of this, an extra £500 million is set to be injected into the road maintenance fund to deal with Britain’s pothole pandemic.
In her speech, Ms Reeves called potholes an “all too visible reminder of our failure to invest as a nation” and promised that the Government would make good on its manifesto promise to “fix an additional one million potholes each year”.
However, critics estimate that the cost of backlogged repairs is currently running at £16 billion, saying that the new funding represents a “drop in the ocean” and “won’t touch the sides” of the mounting road bill.
The People's Verdict
Business owners, families and working Brits have given their verdict on Rachel Reeves’ £40billion tax bomb budget.
The Chancellor today used the first Labour Budget in almost 15 years to hike National Insurance contributions from businesses by 1.2 per cent – in a £25bn raid on firms.
The extra levy is the equivalent of £800 per employee, while investment firm AJ Bell said the cost of hiring a new staff member would rise by £2,300.
The first female Chancellor also announced a reduction to the threshold businesses start paying NICs from £9,100 to £5,000.
It raised fears that workers will bear the brunt of the increase and sparked accusations it breaches the party’s manifesto pledge not to raise taxes for working people.
The National Living Wage will also rise by more than six per cent – triple the rate of inflation – to £12.21 an hour for over-21s.
It means millions will get a huge pay boost, though some firms say the rise will push up costs.
Meanwhile, the NHS will get a huge £22billion investment in a bid to fast-track improvements and reduce record-high waiting lists.
Business owners, tradies, students and workers across the country have given their verdict on the measures, telling The Sun that higher tax rates could trigger a string of consequences for their lives.
They include toolmaker Conrad Pearson, who warned Reeves’ measures would cause him to cut someone from his five-strong toolmaking team.
He said: “As soon as this was announced one of my lads said I’d have to pay him more, otherwise unskilled and less experienced staff would be catching him up.”