Federation of Small Businesses joins forces with the BVRLA

The BVRLA and the Federation of Small Businesses have today issued a joint statement urging government to rethink its plans for van vehicle excise duty (VED), which both organisations believe will be harmful to small business van users.

In its response to a recent government consultation on van VED reform, the BVRLA welcomed the aim to see an increase in the take-up of low-emission vans but flagged concerns around the limited availability of vans currently on the market.

Those that are available are far more expensive than their Euro VI diesel equivalents.

The BVRLA has suggested that the government should incentivise manufacturers to produce a more affordable range of greener vans across all vehicle weight ranges. Practical measures the government could implement include:

  • Increasing the value of plug-in van grants to deliver price parity with diesel vans
  • Providing more research and development grants to encourage manufacturers with the development of new technologies and with bringing these products to the market

BVRLA Chief Executive Gerry Keaney said: “The Government’s approach will have the unintended consequence of penalising hard-working businesses. By heavily focusing on leveraging taxation the Government is missing a trick to incentivise the much-needed production of a greater number of affordable, low emission vans. Van users in the UK currently don’t have much choice across all weight ranges."

Federation of Small Businesses Martin McTague, Policy Chairman, said: “Government must help the transition to produce green vans, by providing incentives to manufacturers and offering more R&D tax credits to those creating this innovative technology. Without this investment, switching to greener transportation will remain out of reach for many small firms.”

You can read the joint press release in full here.

You can read the BVRLA consultation response here.

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