Budget 2020: Key points at a glance

Published 12 March 2020

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, has revealed the Government’s spending plans for the next 12 months. Discover how the Budget 2020 will affect you.

Fuel Duty

Fuel duty remains frozen for the tenth consecutive year. The Chancellor claims the move will save the average motorist up to £1200 a year, with the planned 2p-per-litre tax hike being shelved for another year.

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Roads

The UK's road network gets a new £500m annual fund to fix potholed roads. This means £2.5 billion will be spent on fixing potholes over the next five years.

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Vehicle Excise Duty (Road Tax)

VED rates will rise in line with the RPI inflation rate on 1 April 2020. That means the standard rate for a car registered on or after 1 April 2017 will increase to £160, along some significant rises in the first year rate (commonly known as the showroom tax). Owners of older cars, meanwhile, will typically pay an additional £5 per year.

VED for electric cars is officially free

From 1 April, all electric car owners will qualify for free road tax VED. Previously, EVs which cost more than £40,000 when new, incurred a VED rate of £320 per year for five years in what has become known as 'premium tax'.

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Plug-in electric car grant cut to £3000

Electric car buyers will face higher list prices from 12 March after the Government cut the plug-in car grant subsidy by £500 to £3000. Cars costing more than £50,000 are also now exempt from the Government-funded discount.

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Comments

conman on 12 March 2020

Why should I and the rest of the the tax payers have to contribute to EV owners with a £3000 grant. If you can afford a £40,000 - £50,000 car you don't need my money, the money would be better off going to support the NHS.

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999pez on 12 March 2020

The government have always encouraged people to do things it wants to them to do with targeted tax breaks. The UK put into law the requirement to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 and EV's reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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aethelwulf on 12 March 2020

I wish D Trump was our PM not the ineffectual BoJo following a useless policy introduced by Brown on the so-called climate change in the early 2000 s

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DaveWK on 13 March 2020

We have a 2005 Corsa 1400cc ,Automatic which does 3,000 miles a year. VEL is over £260 a year and now increasing again. This car used up resources fifteen years ago. An electric vehicle uses huge amounts of resources. Check the costs of producing a ton of lithium.
For older vehicles this tax should be on mileage, imposed at MoT time. Maybe £20 a thousand miles.

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