Spring statement 2022: Rishi Sunak cuts fuel duty by 5% and VAT on energy saving devices as he delivers mini budget – live

45 comments

  2. Wow thanks, a saving of about £2 per full tank. Can get a coffee with the spare change (maybe)

  3. Surely that’s almost entirely offset by the additional VAT they’re getting because of the massive price increase

  4. What bullshit. 0%VAT on solar panels etc..so that only benefits those with the money to afford them and brings their costs down. meanwhile the private renters at financial breaking point get no help regarding the energy bills

  6. More business relief… the rich getting richer, like always :-/

    This Government is a joke. Business owners aren’t the ones that are going to be homeless and unable to eat but those on low income or disabled.

  7. So the genius plan is

    – Cut fuel duty, with no restrictions on how much fuel companies can charge

    – Give discounts to homeowners looking to have cheaper bills.

    Once again fucking over the poor to preserve the homeowner class.

  8. This government really have no idea about how a lot of people in this country live. They’re so out of touch. Tone deaf and brain dead. HERERRREEREEE

  10. Sooo should be seeing that 5p a litre off the pumps already right? Considering prices were hiked before the more dearer oil was even processed and delivered. Or will it be more like when oil fluctuated and dropped but the prices continued to increase….

    I imagine the latter.

    Save 5p tomorrow, up by 8p on Sunday.

  12. Convenient tax cut just before an election, not now. Might even make people forget about the parties.

    So why hasn’t VAT been cut off energy bills at least?

  14. And like clockwork my local petrol station has just upped the price by 5p so they can then bring it back down to what it already was. It really needed to be a bigger cut so that retailers couldn’t do this. A 20p cut would have been harder to them to get away with like they did in the Republic of Ireland.

  15. NI threshold raise just makes sense, and good for workers below 35k – still not enough to combat energy prices but oh well

  16. No tax rises on the landlords or the wealthy. Giving a 1p per pound tax relief, only to take that back as an NI contribution.

    Reeves ripping him a new one was the best part about it!

  17. No windfall tax on north sea oil profits to be put directly on cutting bills?

    They care more about billion pound profits than keeping people fed and warm.

  19. Why can’t they just give everyone energy discounts or something. Petrol is pretty much the only thing that’s had the tax amount effectively go down year after year for a decade, and now it’s being cut more.

    Half of my city doesn’t even own a car. A large amount of poor people are taking buses a lot. So maybe cut all public transport by 5p too, would actually be a policy on track for our environmental goals too, rather than against it.

    Just seems like a very very uneven way to spread the cost of living reductions.

    NI changes are ok for lower income people which is good.

    After that there’s not muchh else.

    I feel like if they said the first 1kwh of electricity per home per day is free would help more. Everyone pays it, and people will smaller bills will see a bigger chunk of it paid for.

  20. The National Insurance change is a good move. It more than offsets the rate increase for low earners. The income tax cut will grab headlines just because it’s something that doesn’t happen very often, but it’s pretty meaningless in the grand scheme of things. If you’re making £24k it’ll be worth around £10 a month, which isn’t exactly life changing.

    My concern (other than the fact that tax cuts do nothing for people who aren’t in work) is that they will be paid for by stalling any further threshold increases. That would be typical smoke and mirrors tactics – give with one hand, take back slowly over the next few years.

  21. What can we actually DO about any of this. It’s ridiculous. Everywhere you look there just seem to be more ways to extract our hard earned cash from our current accounts.

    I’ve voted in every election I was able to and not once in 14 years have I been on the ‘winning’ side.

    What are some actual ways the average person can contribute towards changing the system? Because it’s all fucked, and I just can’t see how any of it gets better.

    Forgive the nihilism, I’m just so, so tired of chasing the carrot, only for it to be pulled further away with every step closer I get.

  23. It’s a 5p reduction the end user won’t even notice when it comes to filling up their car.

    Even assuming all of that 5p was seen on your pump price (which it won’t be) – that reduction is after a 6 week period which has seen average prices go up something like 40p a litre.

    5p doesn’t even take us back to where we were this time last week!

    The fact they have made this change in a way which sees the government no worse off given the increase in VAT tells you all you need to know – this government thinks we all zip up the back.

  24. Just remember half of the country voted for these morally bankrupt pieces of shit. They will continue to do so well into the future regardless of how badly they screw people.

  25. Oil went up to $130 a barrel when war broke out, fuel went up about 22p (in my area) in a couple of days. Oil dropped back down to $95 a barrel last week, back up to $110 on Monday and fuel was up a further 2p.

    So oil goes up, fuel goes up. Oil comes down, fuel stays the same.

    But the news only reports it when oil prices go up.

    I don’t know particularly who is taking the fucking piss, whether it’s forecourts, distributors or producers (it’s all of them, let’s be honest) but someone is and the government needs to do something about it. Shell and BP posted record profits last year

    This fuel duty reduction is never going to reach drivers and because oil is “up 5%” today (despite still being $15 a barrel lower than the days after the war starting) they’ll keep forecourt prices the same. So all that’s happening is the government is giving money to oil companies.

    How about we fund this by raising a special one time tax on BP and Shell’s profits from last year? And introduce maximum prices across the supply chain.

  26. People are really struggling now, but the threshold increase coming in in July doesnt help for the next 3 months.

    Sure you get it back, but thats only any good if you can absorb the loss to start with.

  30. I feel so sick, I can’t even read this shit. These cunts need culling. At present, I don’t bother reading the nitty gritty, it’ll only serve to make my mental health deteriorate. I throw more demands for council tax in the bin and prepare to sink back into the poverty I’ve worked so hard to climb out of.

    Fuck the Tory party and anyone who continues to support them.

  31. Energy saving stuff is long overdue, but most welcome. Paying VAT on solar panels during a climate emergency and energy price crisis was mad. Glad they finally saw that.

  32. 5% fuel duty cut does absolutely nothing. Half or or remove it completely. Though I guess the money it raises gives government so much money to dish out to their mates.

  33. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. This government is exactly what the people deserve. You voted for them time and time again, now deal with it.

  34. This is really appalling. We are in a cost-of-living crises, which hits the poorest people most, and we are giving money to people who can afford cars and houses. I am not saying that these people do not suffer, but what about those who cannot afford a car or a house?

  37. The government can do so much more to help those severely affected by the cost of living increases. It’s a start for sure.

  38. Don’t worry guys you’ll probably get around 30 quid a month in your pocket extra in 2024 when they drop the income tax rate by 1%.

  39. It’s times like this we desperately need an actual opposition. Labour are beyond useless at holding this government to account.

  41. It isn’t that they don’t have a clue about less economically well to do people, it’s that they don’t care. What they’re doing is called Financial Repression (you can find WEF research about such tactics on the WEF website). They are purposefully using inflation to devalue and pay off the debt (the parts that aren’t pegged) the government accumulated through gross mismanagement and blatant corruption from COVID. They have prioritised this goal above people’s lives/well-being, whilst flagrantly supporting the rich just months ago. It’s basically austerity again, except in a more deceptive guise (e.g. UC and Pensions rate of their increase to inflation is pathetic. In real-term and massive cut).

  44. The problem with us Brits is majority will be pissed and take it, time for mass action similar to the Thatcher Era is needed now more than ever. More Billionaires, Millionaires and the gap between poor and rich is now as big as its been in our history. Something will have to give, greed will always be broken by those willing to do something about it. I moved back home after being made redundant and am back in work but use half my wage helping parents with the increase in everything. I hate this Government so much and those that voted them in you reap what you sow. The fact parts of my City in Manchester were foolish enough to vote for this greedy, bent and lying bastards makes me shameful to be from Manchester.

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