The Countryside Alliance has responded to the Spring Statement made by the Chancellor.
The Countryside Alliance welcomes this move by the Government to cut fuel duty by 5p because the rising price of fuel is an issue of national concern, but it is one that is most keenly felt in the countryside. With rural householders and businesses struggling to make ends meet, the high costs of motoring threaten to do genuine and long-term damage to the sustainability of the rural economy.
Rural isolation, combined with the continuing decline in rural bus and train services and the progressive closure of local services, means that a car is an essential necessity for rural life, not a luxury.
Increased fuel costs are having a damaging effect on the rural economy, rural commuters, and rural businesses. On average those living in rural areas pay 24 per cent more a month on fuel for their monthly commute than those living in urban areas. From a rural business perspective increased fuel costs have to be passed on and will simply make rural businesses less competitive and impacting on their profitability and that could lead to job losses.
The announcement of a 50 per cent business rates discount for hospitality is a welcome move and will support many hard-pressed businesses who are still struggling post pandemic. Unfortunately for many businesses it is still difficult to plan for the future with any confidence. All of which impacts footfall and, ultimately, revenue. The sustainability of many businesses remain in question.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic continued to highlight the unfairness of this tax and we continue to call for a full-scale review of business rates to ensure we have a system which enables rural businesses to compete fairly with those online. Businesses need long term certainty if they are to be able to invest and plan for the future. We regret that this provision has not be coupled with a continued reduced rate of VAT for the hospitality sector.
We all need to do our bit in tackling the climate crisis and the move to expand the scope of VAT relief available for energy saving materials and ensure that households having them installed pay 0% VAT is to be welcomed.
This will help many who are living in rural areas to improve the energy efficiency of their homes. England's housing stock, particularly in rural areas, is made up of relatively energy inefficient properties which can result in homes that are difficult and costly to heat and to insulate. Coupled with being off the mains gas grid means that these homes have significantly higher carbon emissions and are more expensive to heat. In the past many such properties have not been eligible for government grant schemes such as Warm Front and the Green Deal.
While this measure will help households improve energy efficiency and keep heating bills down, we would like to see the Government go one step further and support those 1.5million households in rural areas that use oil to heat their homes and are not protected by the energy price cap due to UK environmental goals. We believe that legislation is needed to protect people with no option but to use heating oil.