General Election 2015

11 May

| Conservative Party

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Now that the electioneering is over and the Conservative Party has retained control of Britain, what are the most likely changes ahead for managers of vehicle fleets?

The Tories had already committed to building plenty of new roads to ease the pressure on traffic black spots. The £15bn plan is the biggest road-building programme for 50 years and includes more than 100 projects, like revamping the A303, A27 and A47 trunk roads and improving the A1 route between England and Scotland. The total improvement is likely to add 1,300 ‘lane miles’ to the network but will cause roadwork delays until 2021.

Although these routes will be improving over time, saving time and money on the wear and tear of vehicles, in the meantime, your fleet could be stuck in a few traffic jams over the next few years!

David Cameron has pledged to provide the money for local councils to fix millions of potholes plaguing Britain’s roads which we all know to be one of the biggest problems on our roads. Read more on potholes in our previous blog here.

The Conservatives have also promised to promote zero-emission motoring. They want almost every vehicle to be emission-free by 2050 and have set aside £500m to encourage this over the next five years. Going green has never looked more appealing.

Campaigning party officials claimed the new government would tackle high motor insurance costs by targeting fraudsters and introducing independent medical panels for all claims. This should help cut insurance costs moving forward.

There have been no promises about fuel prices. Planned increases in duty were dumped before the election so does that mean we’ll get them all now? For now, fuel prices are still uncertain.

David Cameron pledged that income tax, VAT and national insurance will not rise in the current parliament. Whether it stays the same or does end up increasing, why not use our tax calculator to work out your taxable fuel benefit under the current legislation for any private or business mileage consumed.

There are positives and negatives to fleet managers now that the Conservatives are in power as you can read here. Only time will tell to what extent! 

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