Prescott finally accepts that hauliers are hurting
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• by Charles Young
The Government has finally accepted that the haulage industry is suffering compared with foreign competition and is promising to review vehicle excise duty in time for next March's Budget.
Last Tuesday Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said: We are looking closely, witi the Road Haulage Forum, at ways to raise the competitiveness of Britain's road transport industry. We have already doubled the road tax rebate for cleaner lorries and we are reviewing vehicle excise duty with road haulage interests."
Speaking before yesterday's launch of the Transport Bill, Prescott also outlined plans for new road building funds and investment, describing this as a "gear change" from solely investing in public, transport.
However, in a note of warning to the industry Prescott added: "I know they [hauliers] welcomed the end of the automatic 6% escalator on fuel duty I hope they will also accept the need to hypothecate future increases into improving transport, particularly roads."
The Freight Transport Association welcomed Prescott's remarks, but its deputy director-general, Richard Turner, who also spoke at the meeting, asked for a respite on future fuel duty increases. 'We are going to get efficiency gains from the investment but that is available to foreign competitors as well," he said.
However, Stephen Joseph from the lobby group Transport 2000 said hauliers must accept future duty rises: "They are not going to get a reduction in charges and higher transport investment. It's simply not on."
THE MAIN POINTS OF THE NEW TRANSPORT BILL ARE: £1.4bn to be spent on 37 bypasses over the next few years;
L The road maintenance budget will be increased by 20%; k Congestion charging will be delayed until 2003.