TRTA PROTESTS TO MR. BROWN
Page 24
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
SERIOUS concern at the implications for
commercial vehicles arising from the Government's White Paper on Investment Incentives has been expressed by the TRTA in a letter to Mr. George Brown, Economics Minister.
The Association considers that the net effect of making the commercial vehicle ineligible for investment grant, eliminating the investment allowance and adjusting the initial allowance, will be to Increase by some 12 per cent the direct cost of purchasing commercial vehicles.
Strong concern is expressed at the effect on costs. In the past 15 months, goods transport has been subjected to an increase of 50 per cent in road fund tax and an Increase in fuel tax. This latest proposal, says the TRTA, would drive up still further the cost of transport and, inevitably, the cost of living and exports.
The proposal seems to be completely at variance with the present policies of the Ministry of Transport aimed at an improvement in the standards of goods vehicles, continues the letter. In many cases the desired improvement can be secured only by the purchase of new vehicles, a development that is bound to be retarded by less favourable taxation treatment which it is now proposed to accord this class of investment.
The TRTA urges "Serious reconsideration of the Opposed treatment of commercial road transport, and its reclassification alongside the manufacturing and extractive industries of which it is an essential part", and to this end has requested Mr. Brown to receive a joint delegation from the TRTA and the RHA.
Urban Clearways in SE London; The Greater London Council is seeking the views of five London boroughs—Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark and the City of Westminster—on its proposals for the first eight miles of urban clearways in southeast London