Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 15 October 2024 to Question 8568 on Roads: Freight, what steps her Department is taking to support road haulage businesses.

Small businesses including those in the road haulage sector are the beating heart of our communities, and essential to our economic success. This Government will draw on all resources to support these small businesses and boost productivity by delivering commitments made in our nine-point pledge, Plan for Small Business.

We are working on delivering these commitments and announced on 19th September 2024 measures to tackle the scourge of late payments and long payment terms. We are also creating opportunities for UK businesses to compete and supporting small businesses to access the finance they need to scale up and break into new markets.

At Autumn Budget 2024, the Government announced continued support for haulage businesses, by extending the 5p fuel duty cut for one year and cancelling the planned inflation increase for 2025-26. This maintains fuel duty rates at the levels set on 23 March 2022 for an additional 12 months and represents a saving of nearly £1,100 for the average HGV in 2025-26.