Sometimes there is a problem so glaring that you wonder why no one is addressing it.
Sooner or later, the government is going to have to deal with the black hole that will appear in the public finances as a result of the switch to electric cars. True, Jeremy Hunt has announced that electric cars registered from April 2025 onwards will have to pay road tax: £10 in their first year followed by £165 a year from then onwards. But that still leaves disappearing fuel duty. By 2030, according to Office of Budgetary Responsibility (OBR) calculations out today, that will deprive the Treasury of £13 billion a year in lost revenue. Eventually, the lost revenue could grow to £25 billion.
Will the government be happy to forgo this income? Will it cut government spending or tax something else instead? Will it heck.
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