Taxation (Energy and Vehicles)

Debate between Charlie Maynard and Nusrat Ghani

Wednesday 24th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Charlie Maynard (Witney) (LD)]

The electricity generator levy is a windfall tax on UK electricity generation from nuclear, renewable and biomass sources, and it raised £0.7 billion in the last financial year. The EGL is a revenue-based tax that currently applies at a rate of 45% on exceptional generation receipts above a benchmark price of £77.94 per megawatt-hour, with an allowance of £10 million per company. In contrast, the energy profits levy applies to oil and gas production in the UK and the UK continental shelf, and raised £2.9 billion in the last financial year. We support the goal of seeking to fund cost of living support through emergency revenue measures during the gas price shock, but we also note that power wholesale prices are now around £90 per megawatt-hour, compared with a spike of £135 per megawatt-hour and a pre-Iran conflict price of £80 per megawatt-hour. How much is this measure likely to raise, given the move in prices? It feels like the horse may have already bolted, so I would be interested to hear the Minister’s thoughts on that.

We recognise that this measure is a nudge to accelerate the shift of legacy renewable generators away from volatile wholesale prices and towards fixed contracts for difference, using a higher tax rate as leverage. If legacy renewable generators—those on the renewables obligation, not those already under CfDs—sign up to a wholesale contract for difference, they exchange their volatile wholesale revenues for a fixed strike price. That is obviously good news for consumers, who are insulated from future gas price spikes on that portion of generation because the generator is no longer passing through the wholesale prices, and the Government capture any upside via the Low Carbon Contracts Company when wholesale prices rise.

The second motion will increase the mileage allowance. Again, this seems a logical step, and one that we are happy to support. I note that the 45p rate has been frozen since 2011, so it has been 15 years without an adjustment. Over that period, the costs of fuel, insurance, tyres and servicing have all risen materially, so while 55p is a meaningful correction, it is questionable whether it fully catches up with accumulated inflation. This change will have a positive impact overall, not least for people in professions such as care work, who do a lot of driving between appointments. I refer again to the Lib Dem proposal to cut fuel duty by 10%—if the Chancellor took that proposal on board, it would combine with the increase in mileage allowance to make a significant difference in the pockets of people who often have to drive for work. I also note that the cost of this change has not been set out, only that it is

“subject to scrutiny by the Office for Budget Responsibility and will be set out at a future fiscal event.”

Personally, I do not think that is good enough. The Treasury team should set out the cost of any change in the tax take, whether positive or negative, when it is proposed.

Finally, the 12-month vehicle excise duty holiday for HGVs is a sensible and welcome measure, and we will not oppose it. Our hauliers, such as Chris Hayter in Witney, are critical. They are the backbone of our economy, and I understand that the Minister knows them well. We need to be honest about what this change is and what it is not. Our haulage sector was already in crisis before the conflict in Iran. Insolvency rates in road freight have been running at record levels. Margins were being squeezed by rising insurance costs, driver shortages and the lingering disruption of years of post-Brexit paperwork. The Iran conflict has simply poured fuel—at £1.85 a litre—on to a fire that was already burning.

The VED holiday saves a typical operator about £600 a vehicle. We welcome every penny of that, but against a fuel cost shock that is adding £1 billion a year to the industry’s cost base, it is by the Government’s own figures a quarter of the problem. Many operators will burn through that saving in a matter of weeks at the pump. What the sector needs alongside this is a serious long-term plan on fuel duty RPI indexation, which threatens to push costs higher again next April, on driver recruitment and retention, where the shortage remains acute, and on the transition to cleaner vehicles, where smaller operators have been left without a credible path to decarbonisation. We will support this measure through Parliament because the people driving these lorries deserve the relief now, not after another round of consultations.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call the Minister to wind up.

Clause 1

Debate between Charlie Maynard and Nusrat Ghani

Monday 12th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Charlie Maynard]

I thank my hon. Friend. [Interruption.] Would you like to intervene?

[The Chairman of Ways and Means (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. I have no desire to intervene on the hon. Member—“Would the hon. Member like to intervene?”

[Charlie Maynard]

My apologies, Ms Ghani.

Injury in Service Award

Debate between Charlie Maynard and Nusrat Ghani

Thursday 20th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Charlie Maynard (Witney) (LD)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Cheadle (Mr Morrison) for securing this excellent debate.

I want to seek the Minister’s help with the case of my Witney constituent, Bill Maddocks. Bill was an on-call firefighter at Witney for 22 years and contracted covid at work, while seconded on a whole-time contract to assist the ambulance service during the pandemic. This became long covid and, as a result, he was retired from the fire service due to ill health. During this process, he was assured by senior managers that a pension equivalent to a whole-time firefighter would be his, and he was independently medically assessed as having a tier 1 level and 100% disability, entitling him to a compensation pension equivalent to a whole-time firefighter wage.

There has been a long-standing dispute about his disablement and the apportionment. Even though it was independently assessed and agreed by Oxfordshire fire and rescue service as legally binding, the amount awarded was equivalent only to on-call pay rather than the full-time wage. As a result, the Pensions Ombudsman became involved, as well as the Fire Brigades Union. There has continued to be a Byzantine maze and the Pensions Ombudsman has walked away saying that the case lies outside its brief. Four years on, Bill remains incredibly debilitated and suffering deeply, supported wonderfully by his wife, Nikki. I would like your help in finding a way through this situation monetarily, but the man also deserves an award, exactly as we have named here today.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. I was going to correct the hon. Member’s use of the word “your”, but I did not want to interrupt his flow. I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

UK Modern Industrial Strategy

Debate between Charlie Maynard and Nusrat Ghani

Monday 23rd June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call Select Committee Member Charlie Maynard.

[Charlie Maynard (Witney) (LD)]

The Secretary of State said,

“The UK has long been and will remain a champion of free trade”

—if only! It is not on the big stuff or the important stuff. Leaving the EU’s customs union and single market has reduced UK GDP by between 2% and 4%. The deal with India is good news, but according to the UK Government’s own estimate, it adds 0.1% in the long term—that is, 20 to 40 times smaller. UK exports are down 13% since the trading co-operation agreement took effect. That impacts people in my constituency and all hon. Members’ constituencies. When will the Government move faster to repair the enormous economic damage of a hard Brexit?

Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill

Debate between Charlie Maynard and Nusrat Ghani

2nd reading
Monday 25th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Charlie Maynard (Witney) (LD)]

I find it more than ludicrous to hear the Tories lecturing Labour about red tape. What the Tories have served up to the country through Brexit and the damage they have done to our economy is a disaster. To hear them masquerading as—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. Only interventions relevant to the speech in hand should be made. There is no need for that performance.

Black History Month

Debate between Charlie Maynard and Nusrat Ghani

Thursday 24th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Charlie Maynard (Witney) (LD)]

I thank my hon. Friend for his fantastic speech, and I thank all the other Members who have spoken for theirs. They have really struck a chord.

The Windrush flows through the town of Witney and the rest of my constituency. The Empire Windrush was named after the river, so many in my constituency have a connection, which they honour, to that boat, which brought so many people to this country. I think many people in the constituency remember that everybody was invited—we in this country asked for help at the end of world war two, and that help was given—but too many in this country forget that. Black History Month does a great service in reminding us who asked for help.

I also want to give credit to the Government, because the Windrush compensation scheme—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. [Interruption.] Order. Both of us cannot be standing, and I am not going to be seated. You need to sit when I am standing. This is an intervention, not a speech, so I have no doubt that you are coming to a conclusion.

[Charlie Maynard]

I am. I thank the Government for their Windrush compensation scheme improvements, and I look forward to their moving much more speedily than the previous Government in delivering them.