FLA Put Net Zero Top of the Government's Agenda

Simon Goldie, Director of Advocacy

While we speak to HM Treasury civil servants throughout the year, a Chancellor’s Budget is an opportunity to formally propose policy ideas that will drive economic activity and help the government in question achieve its stated aims.

The current Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, is due to set out his fiscal thinking on Wednesday 15 March. The press are already reporting that this won’t be a tax cutting exercise but more a setting out of economic conditions and a report on how well the Government is doing. That may be the case. There will undoubtedly be further speculation and leaks about the content the closer we get to the date. Of course, it is important to understand the likely contents of the Budget, but we focus on policy and not the what-ifs.

 We are proposing thought out policy initiatives that will help FLA members, their customers and the UK economy. We have honed in on net zero because the clock is ticking towards legislated targets that will see no new diesel or petrol cars coming onto the market in 2030 and no new gas boilers installed in homes built after 2025.

To help our members finance the net zero transition, we are calling for:

• The introduction of a “green super-deduction”, to replace some capital allowances and the existing super-deduction which comes to an end in 2023
• In tandem with the new super-deduction, further simplification, and rationalisation of the capital allowances regime
• The introduction of a “Green Wholesale Finance Guarantee” for consumer and business lenders
• Radical reform of the Consumer Credit Act, which will make financing an EV simpler and modernise consumer regulation

However good our proposals are, one voice will not convince HMT officials that they should recommend these policies to ministers. That is why we have been building support for our proposals across members’ supply chain. We have worked in partnership with the BVRLA on the green super-deduction proposal and shared our ideas with many other trade bodies who represent our members’ customers. So, don’t be surprised if you see our arguments reflected in other submissions.

We are also planning a series of events on net zero throughout the year, so watch this space.

Published 25 Jan 2023