Finance (No. 2) Bill (Fourth sitting)

Richard Holden Excerpts

Wednesday 5th January 2022 Public Bill Committees

[The Chair]

I remind the Committee that with this we are discussing the following:

New clause 5—Vehicle taxes: effect on climate change goals—

“The Government must publish within 12 months of this Act coming into effect an assessment of the impact of sections 77 to 79 on the goal of tackling climate change and on the UK‘s plans to reach net zero by 2050.”

New clause 15—Review of VED revenue from light passenger or light goods vehicles, motorcycles etc in context of future demand for electric vehicles—

“(1) The Government must publish within twelve months of this Act coming into effect an assessment of the expected level of revenues of Vehicle Excise Duty from light passenger or light goods vehicles, motorcycles etc in future years in the context of the expected uptake of electric vehicles.

(2) The Review must also consider possible alternatives to Vehicle Excise Duty on these vehicles.”

[Mr Richard Holden (North West Durham) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dame Angela. I apologise to the hon. Member for Gordon, who has the honour of sharing with me a great first name; I could not quite hear the muffled mask comments. I apologise for that, Dame Angela.

I wanted to speak in support of clause 77, because a couple of years ago the Government tried to change some of the regulations in this area to start taxing motorhomes, which are produced in my constituency, as expensive cars rather than light goods vehicles. I am delighted that my hon. Friend the Minister is not proposing such a change today. I will just ask her whether she can assure me that no such changes are planned for the future, because the hundreds of employees at Erwin Hymer in my North West Durham constituency have really benefited from the reversal of that change. I just want to get that reassurance from her.