With the government’s plans announced in the budget that from 2009 they are going to raise the cost of car tax for all cars that were made after 2001 fresh in everyone’s minds, the plans have come under fire by that most vitriolic of groups, the Backbencher in a committee, for being ‘too lenient’ and would ‘have limited impact on the environment.’

Serious words. So, what are these new rules, how will it affect us and is this just an attempt for the government to squeeze the cash-strapped motorist for the very last of their pennies without any real clear direction into what we’re going to do with the environment?

Firstly, let’s clarify what we’re talking about and why, earlier this year, Darling (nope, not the one from Blackadder – the one with the dubiously coloured hair/eyebrow combo) in his budget changed the rules regarding car tax.

Would you trust this man with your car tax?

He has basically increased the price of cars that pollute the most, and as you’d expect, those cars with the least amount of pollution would cost the least amount of money to tax and those wonderful SUV and high-performance cars would be blown to pieces with the cost.

Ok, you say. More money, but in this day and age it’s obvious that the government is going to start putting in these schemes to create a greener world. But hang on a minute; this isn’t just for new cars. Oh no. This is for all cars, first registered after 1st March 2001.

Not that 2001, the proper 2001

Do you remember 2001? It was a far simpler time. Petrol cost about 80p a litre, you didn’t have to bring your own bags into supermarkets, you could buy anything on your Credit Card and green cars, although spoken about (and were in manufacture – thank you Toyota) were still something of a pipe dream. Due to the relatively cheap cost of fuel, large cars for big families were readily bought and were the norm.

Now fast forward seven years, these cars are still running about on 120p fuel and are again going to be the victim of another expense. And, as these cars are older, they’re probably going to be in the hands of people with lower incomes, again adding to the struggle of modern living.

This was actually highlighted in the report, criticising the government, and they asked Angela Eagle, who is the Exchequer Secretary, about the impact of taxing big old cars and the implications that will have on poorer households. She said, “There has been a lot of inaccuracy bandied about the effects of some of these changes on vulnerable groups” (she then talked about the Motability Scheme) – at the risk of sounding all Daily Mail, this misses out the people who are above the bread line but are still suffering a great deal.

Surely the government must be aware that this is going to hurt lower-income people most? Well they are, but the backbencher’s report published yesterday by said the tax hikes were not high enough. They said, “Road tax reforms that were announced in the budget are too modest and will do little to cut harmful emissions.”

So –they want to go further? The report goes on to call for “much more ambitious reforms” and asks the question at why stop at a tax ceiling of £455 and “why go further”

Before you spill your Starbucks on your leather-seated Range Rover at hearing this statement and begin to imagine a £2,000 tax fee for the car, I think the committee has a point.

Why not tax every car in the UK that produces over 100 g/km (the minimum EU target) at £2,000 per year, a flat rate. Hang on a minute, before you cart me off to the Flat Earth Society, please read the end of this blog.

First off, the extra funds will get ploughed back into public transport – and I mean all of it. Just imagine: there are 32,900,000 cars on the road in the UK. You’d get an influx of over £600 billion (give or take a tenner) come into the coffers.

The problems wouldn’t go away in a year, perhaps in ten but the car, as we know it, would disappear. People would have to find alternative means. Car manufacturers would sit up and take notice. Remember, they want to sell you cars. If you can’t buy them, they will have to do something else. They will divert all of their resources to hitting the 100 g/km target, producing new technology affordable straight away. It’s like having a Monday morning deadline for your schoolwork – you did it on Sunday night didn’t you? This fee would focus the mind.

This is what it’s all about, a blue (sometimes red disc!)

Perhaps you could go further, making it an EU rule, and you could get literally trillions of pounds to fund public transport with car manufacturers missing out on a massive global chunk of capital if they continue down their merry path.

Will it ever happen though? No. Despite all of this green awareness, the government will continue to pick at our resources, make us struggle more with no clear guidelines, citing ‘Environment’ as a reason to just add tax a little more each time. This lethargic approach will make no friends, not highlight the problems facing the planet in the next 100 years and just slowly drain our resources as we all fork out more and more for tax, fuel until everything, eventually, grounds to a halt.