Motorists escape heavy 'tolls' in Budget
The Chancellor's emergency Budget has been relatively lenient on motorists, with no significant rises in fuel duty.
Curiously, the rumoured VED hikes for high CO2-emitting cars also don't appear to have materialised.
Car buyers will be hardest hit by a rise in VAT from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent, a move that will increase the costs of new and used cars, and inflate servicing, maintenance and fuel costs. The VAT increases won't be introduced until January 2011, however.
There may yet be hidden pain for the nation's drivers, however, as Chancellor George Osborne didn't reveal how the government plans to shave £683m from the Department for Transport's budget. That could yet come from the scrapping of road building and maintenance plans - though we'll no doubt find out for sure when the full details of the Budget are made available.
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