Mr Speaker
I support this motion....
and whilst I appreciate that the Treasury has gone some way to dismantling the inequities of the past....
by ending the fuel duty escalator,
delaying the planned price increases,
and establishing a fuel stabiliser, I believe there is much, much more we could do.
Our hard pressed drivers already pay the highest duty in the EU at 81p on a litre of diesel.
Remember, diesel was once touted as the economy fuel.
Businesses were encouraged to use it, private car drivers moved to diesel vehicles and the haulage industry has always used it.
Yet now it costs more than petrol.
The reasons why..... world markets, shortages, quotas, exchange rates.... mean little on the streets.
All our drivers know is that they are being unfairly penalised.
What’s more, they have always been unfairly penalised.
Our fuel prices have always been higher than those on the continent.
Only now, it’s real money.....a staggering £100 to fill up the tank on a family car.
My constituents want to know why last summer they paid 120.25 pence per diesel litre, and this summer, a fraction off 140 pence.
Rural drivers must travel further to reach work, schools, hospitals and shops.
They must pay higher prices at the pumps.
They are, on average, less well off than their city counterparts.
They could be priced off the roads.
Yet public transport is rarer and less reliable than in the city.
Rural businesses, perhaps originally attracted by regional development opportunities, are dependent upon supply and distribution networks to get their products out.
And are therefore hit unduly hard by unfair taxes.
I have two examples for you from my own constituency.
Resort Marketing Limited is a successful operation which operates throughout the all-important tourist season, with three vans permanently on the road, delivering and re-delivering brochures to more than 4,000 outlets across the South West..
It is a small, but successful business. But the owner, Brian Cooper, says that a rise of more than 30% in diesel prices over the past two years has cost him £5,000 a year.
He told me that he feels there is nothing he can do.
He still has to deliver the magazines and so he must pay it.
But he believes the Government is – and I quote – “ basically ripping us off – and it’s a big mistake.”
His point is that fuel prices affect everyone....
They have a huge effect on enterprise and the economy.....
If it costs more to deliver food, clothing, everything, then we all pay more.
There are knock on effects, too.....
Mr Cooper would like to take on an apprentice and applauds the new Government initiatives.
Yet the £5,000 he had earmarked for the purpose has been swallowed up in taxes....
And so.....no apprentice, no dent in youth unemployment and down the line, no growth.
Another local business, Extra Mile Chauffeur Services covers 210,000 miles with their fleet of executive cars.
Fuel costs annually top £40,000 – more than the individual costs of the cars, the drivers or the insurance.
Owners Mick and Julie Cole, tell me that prices are non-negotiable if they want to remain competitive.
Their clients are extremely price sensitive and the larger ones, even more so.
Yet for them, there is no negotiating over fuel prices.
The much anticipated Olympics dividend, which should be a bonus for local businesses in South Dorset, is a cause for concern.
Bookings made over the last three years for dignitaries visiting the sailing Olympics have been agreed at prices which – in view of fuel price fluctuations - could only be guessed at.
The Coles are expected to quote for jobs and to stay with that price, no matter what happens to fuel prices.
If the promised fuel price increases go ahead in January and August...
adding an estimated 7 to 8 pence a litre....
their business will be forced to absorb the hit.
And again, the wider financial situation is worsening the local one.
Today, say the Coles, clients are asking for 60 day terms, rather than the current 30 – an extra financial burden for smaller businesses to absorb.
Yet absorb it they must......
Finally.... just a word about the role of the EU in all this.
Once again, we are stymied by EU regulations, which demand a minimum uniform VAT rate across the EU.
To change the rate on a single commodity like oil – to give, for example, business users a break on diesel - would be illegal under EU duty harmonisation rules.
The EU has, however, allowed us to apply for a rural rebate.
As member for a predominantly rural constituency, I was particularly interested....
until I discovered that the pilot scheme applies only to the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Scillies and the Northern Isles!
While I applaud the Government’s decision to go for anything they can, it is not going to help my constituents - or the vast majority of British drivers.
We hear the word ‘growth’ every day.
It is the holy grail, the answer to our endeavours, the solution to the financial crisis.
But I can assure the Government that there can be no growth while we hamstring our drivers and businesses with crippling taxes which bleed away the proceeds of all our efforts.