In what was the last Budget before the General Election,

Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling MP gave little in the way of help to embattled motorists. The biggest news related to motoring from the 2010 budget was a staggering of the near 3p increase in fuel duty which was due in April. Instead an additional 1p will be added to fuel duty in April, followed by a further 1p in October, with the difference added to fuel duty in January. At a time of near record petrol and diesel prices on the forecourts the news is not expected to go down with motorists, the majority of whom feel they are shouldering an unfair tax burden.

In further budget news, Mr Darling reiterated the UK Government’s commitment to making the country a world leading place in the development of electric cars. Citing last week’s news of the Nissan LEAF production heading to Sunderland.

Finally, a £100m fund has been created to help repair local roads many of which are in a state of disrepair thanks to the unusually harsh and prolonged winter, along with £285m to be invested in UK Motorways.

BVRLA chief executive, John Lewis on the Budget statement today.

“This was more of a pre-election statement than a Budget and there was precious little for road users to get encouraged about.”

“By doing nothing to reduce grey-fleet encouraging AMAPs rates or the 3% diesel surcharge, the government has yet again failed to remedy the inequalities in its emissions-reduction strategy. However, we do applaud the fact that the Treasury has finally made existing tax incentives technology neutral. Staggering the 3p increase in fuel duty will give road users some respite. In reality, they are still applying the thumbscrews, just a little more slowly.”