Reply to: Oh Lovely. A new tax

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Labour really know how to hoover up antivotes. At this rate they'll be lucky to have more than a single-digit number of seats after the next election.

I think they will lose next time, but most posters on here wouldn't vote Labour even if Maggie was their new leader and Winston Churchill was in the cabinet - it's the people who have voted for them in the past they need to worry about.

[OwlHoot]

.. Under the scheme, any firm with 11 or more staff parking spaces will be charged £250 a year for each. That cost could rise to £350 within two years.

Employers would be free to pass the cost on to their staff. An estimated 40,000 commuters in Nottingham drive to work and some businesses have threatened to leave the area if the scheme is introduced. ...

Labour really know how to hoover up antivotes. At this rate they'll be lucky to have more than a single-digit number of seats after the next election.

[NotAllThere]

In Zurich you have to pay.

You don't in Basel.

[LegendsWear7]

I don't think this will take off. The british motorist is still a powerful lobby.

The British motorist is a cash-cow victim of London gov. Easy prey.

Estimated 50 BILLION received (call it a cool 1bn/week) and spent 9bn annually on road-related costs. Even my pimp would blush at that markup.

(I'm currently working in Germany and don't need a car here most of the time. Will be a real good chunk of income at home just to get to work and whatever. Feels all wrong. Is it all part of the Assist India programme ?)

Victims: click here for full source

Since 1997 Labour has been on the lucrative receiving end of colossal increases in tax receipts after millions of additional motorists have qualified to drive and purchased cars/fuel/insurance weighed down by VAT or other taxes. But the size of the major road network has increased in size by a paltry one per cent during the decade and a bit that the party has been in power.

Less than 20 per cent of the £50bn we cough up annually in motoring tax is returned to us via safer, smoother, wider or fresher roads. To put that another way, most of the £6.2bn Labour grosses a year in VAT on vehicles, plus the further £2.6bn it grabs in "company car tax" is reinvested in the network.

But the £5bn plus it makes in VED, plus the £36bn or more it trousers in VAT and other taxes on fuel is sheer "profit" which is free to be spent on other, non-car-related items.

The colossal under-spending on the roads is resulting in a network that, year on year, simply has many more vehicles per mile. Also, there are too many bodged quick fixes (such as the emergency filling in of potholes) instead of proper, preventive maintenance.

Nine out of 10 authorities have formally said the chronic underfunding is a threat to safety. There are associated environmental costs, too, because the choked, stop-start roads that the Government has now lumbered us with inevitably cause vehicles to burn more fuel, meaning an increase in exhaust emissions.

[RichardCranium]

a mobile patio (patent pending)

'Ello, 'ello, 'ello. Do you have a tax disc for that mobile patio, sir? 'Ow about insurance or an MOT?

I see.

And does your licence permit you to drive this class of vehicle, sir?

I see.

Would you care to escort me to the station? No, that's OK sir, I do know where it is, thank you very much. I'll even give you a lift. Get in. Oh dear. Was that your head? I am sorry, sir.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Thats cool I can then implement my plan B and be a winner.

Question: If I place my four wheels of my car on four patio blocks from my house (My plan B to sell 4 patio blocks gift wrapped and guaranteed) in the works car park, am I parked on my patio now classed as a mobile patio (patent pending) in the works car park or am I still parked on my patio blocks on the works car park? - Big difference of the prepositions "in" and on"

Your plan B will most likely result in a ban on sales of patio blocks to anyone except government licensed contractors.

[Platypus]

The british motorist is still a powerful lobby.

No I don't think the motorist lobby is powerful at all: motorists have for years been screwed on road tax, stupidly high fuel prices, insurance tax, speed cameras, the MOT is essentially a tax and now this.

The British motorist is a cash cow.

[uky kozak]

Thats cool I can then implement my plan B and be a winner.

Question: If I place my four wheels of my car on four patio blocks from my house (My plan B to sell 4 patio blocks gift wrapped and guaranteed) in the works car park, am I parked on my patio now classed as a mobile patio (patent pending) in the works car park or am I still parked on my patio blocks on the works car park? - Big difference of the prepositions "in" and on"

[minestrone]

Message to all big companies out there facing yet more red tape and more business taxes under Labour.

Taxes are very low in India and the workers are generally degree educated and hardworking.

Just a thought.

Exactly, you can't fault a company offshoring these days.

I was working in an brand new office last year, they were not allowed to build the car park the full size of the ground available to 'encourage the use of public transport'.

[DimPrawn]

Message to all big companies out there facing yet more red tape and more business taxes under Labour.

Taxes are very low in India and the workers are generally degree educated and hardworking.

Just a thought.

[Sockpuppet]

I don't think this will take off. The british motorist is still a powerful lobby.

The warehouses i design have upwards of five hundred parking spaces. Not that they all get used. The car parks are just yard space with lines on. This would cause business to move.

[RichardCranium]

This is definitely not new.

When the BBC built the White City building in the early 1990s the local council initially refused planning permission for any car park on the site as a traffic management measure. It was council policy that no business would be given planning permission for parking spaces. After a battle, the council said the site could have parking spaces but the Beeb must charge the staff for them. So they did. It was in the order a couple of hundred quid a year.

It's just an old idea coming round again. Local authorities are like that.

[alreadypacked]

What next? X hundred pounds a year to park your car on your own drive at home, added to your council tax.

In Zurich you have to pay.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

This has been proposed since the 1990s. The only surprise is that it's taken so long to implement. Of course the spin is that it's Green-influenced, but as alluded to earlier it's another tax on jobs, and another reason for firms to outsource/move off-shore. I'm not totally convinced that it's solely a Labour thing either - when Dave first became Tory leader he went through the hoops to "prove" he was into the Green thing - didn't he fly to the Artic circle or something daft? Consequently I can't see his being elected making much difference - he'll still be interested in the potential tax receipts. All very depressing.

Correct - first mooted by fatso Lawson in the 80s still a tulipe idea though

[gingerjedi]

What next? X hundred pounds a year to park your car on your own drive at home, added to your council tax.

Park on your patio, they can't tax it twice can they?