Norfolk Haulage firm expecting more than 'sticking plaster' support from Spring Statement
Rishi Sunak announced a 5p cut in fuel duty, that came into effect from 6pm last night
A haulage firm in Norfolk tells us they were expecting more direct support from the Chancellor as part of his Spring statement, which was unveiled yesterday.
Rishi Sunak announced a 5p cut in fuel duty, that came into effect from 6pm last night.
While also raising the threshold for paying National Insurance by three thousand pounds to £12,570.
But Helena Parker-Wright, the manager of W's Transport, based in Dereham says it's a drop in the ocean for them: "£40 that they're going to give me back, if one of my guys or girls doesn't manage to find a secure parking space and they park in an areas that they potentially shouldn't do, like on an industrial estate where they are delivering and a road traffic officer comes along, I'll get a £90 parking ticket.
"Our Government are very much a fan of 'let's do a sticking plaster'.. We've still got the highest fuel duty rate in Europe, even with the 5p taken off.
"But if you base off the fact that a truck uses around 800 to 1,000 litres a week, if you do 800 times by 5p, that's £40 that's going to be saved in a week."
Ms Parker-Wright says she was expecting more focussed support among other things: "We need to think about what is essential and all we've done is we've just done it across the board, where if we gave something back to those people who are actually giving something to help our economy and people, while also kind of pushing people off the road that don't need to be there necessarily, then I think we would have done a little bit better.
"So, that's what I was looking for really, something that's more direct.
"The Road Haulage Association had been writing letters to the Chancellor and all MPs telling them to get going and put a rebate system in place for essential transport users.
"It was looking rather positive because we would be falling in line with other countries but it's not really come to anything".