Britain’s war on car ownership must stop

The cruel culling of private motor cars and their occupants is being ramped up by national government and regional or local councils.

Ordinary, self-reliant, working-class people with daily commutes to and from their places of employment or education are being hardest hit. In effect, the ideological, idiotic political ‘plan’ is to bludgeon them out of their rarely subsidised personal cars, before dumping these good people on railway platforms or at bus stops to wait for unreliable trains and buses that gorge on state subsidies, but have little appetite for turning up on early mornings or late nights.  

Whether by accident or design, anti-motorist/pro-public transport politicians are guilty of either pricing poorer car users off the road, or fleecing wealthier motorists who don’t realise, or daren’t think about the magnitude of their car, fuel and other taxes. Example: someone who buys an entry-level Range Rover for around £110,000 will see about £18,000 of that going straight to the Government in VAT, with another £3,000 or so (year one excise duty) also being pinged to HM Treasury. In return for what, exactly?

During the life of the vehicle, its owners will pay tens of thousands more to the state in duties/VAT on fuel, insurance, local authority parking charges and countless other state-sponsored fees, fines, levies and scams, plus VAT on repairs and servicing.   

It is for these and related reasons that it’s now become financially ruinous for me to return my humble Land Rover to public streets. The annual VED cost, refuelling its large tank, buying its expensive insurance, handing over the best part of £100 a day for driving on roads or tunnels in the London Congestion and ULEZ zones (what a racket!) and parking in local council-provided bays underground or on London streets have done in me, my wallet and, ultimately, the viability of a car that has lots of life left in it.

True, politicians haven’t wholly succeeded in pricing me off the road, because I own and use an efficient hybrid car daily. But the harsh realities of modern motoring are such that although I could, until recently, afford to buy, own and tax two or three vehicles at a time (in my case, a petrol supermini, premium hybrid SUV and diesel van), I no longer can.

Several friends, associates, and family members tell me that they, too, are struggling with the cost of having two or three owned, taxed and insured vehicles in their households. 

It’s bad enough that there have, in recent years, been major hikes in the price of cars, fuel and insurance. But hey, vehicle manufacturers, franchised dealers, oil companies and insurers are in business to make money. Politicians are not (or they shouldn’t be). Which begs the question: how come we’re letting them get away with taxing our car purchase and running costs so excessively and unfairly?

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