![\"Chancellor](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/chancellor-rachel-reeves-and-a-nissan-production-line.jpg\")
<\/p>\nExperts are calling on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to resist hiking taxes that could cause 5,000 job losses and a massive hit to the UK’s car market.<\/p>\n
November 26 will see the Chancellor unveil the Government’s latest spending plans, which have already sparked backlash over plans to hike taxes.<\/p>\n
The motoring industry has set out proposals for the Chancellor to re-align fiscal measures with “pro-growth policies” that support the Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy.<\/p>\n
The Government has set out plans to drive growth by increasing the volume of vehicles made in the UK to over 1.3 million cars and commercial vehicles by 2023.<\/p>\n
Ministers have spoken of the desire for the UK to return to the helm of automotive manufacturing excellence.<\/p>\n
To move towards this goal, the Government continues to invest in the electric car manufacturing sector and backs the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate.<\/p>\n
However, organisations have warned of “severe and lasting damage to jobs” if the Chancellor moves forward with plans to end Employee Car Ownership Schemes (ECOS).<\/p>\n
The calls from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) highlight the importance of ECOS, especially with manufacturer remuneration packages.<\/p>\n
Chancellor Rachel Reeves could oversee changes to Employee Car Ownership Schemes <\/p>\n
| <\/p>\n
GETTY\/PA<\/p>\n
They allow employees to access the products they make and sell affordably, even though the Government plans to reclassify ECOS vehicles to make them liable for company car tax.<\/p>\n
Commenting on the plans, Mike Hawes, chief executive of the SMMT, warned that changes to ECOS would make company cars unaffordable for as many as 60,000 auto workers.<\/p>\n
He said it would “hamstring” the new and nearly-used car markets if around 80,000 new cars were no longer registered, especially with many of them being zero emission.<\/p>\n
The expert said the knock-on effects for the manufacturing sector would be “significant” by effectively docking the wages of workers.<\/p>\n
It could also cut off transport options, and even reduce output by 20,000 units at an annual cost of \u00a31billion.<\/p>\n
Mr Hawes warned that the decision to cut ECOS could put 5,000 manufacturing jobs around the country at risk.<\/p>\n
He continued, saying: “Perhaps even more incomprehensible, just as Government needs to raise revenues and double down on growth, ending ECOS invites the loss of half a billion pounds a year from discarded VAT and VED receipts.<\/p>\n
“That this is entirely the wrong measure at entirely the wrong time.”<\/p>\n
![\"Car](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/car-production.jpg\")
The SMMT has warned that job losses could be likely if certain schemes are cut <\/p>\n
| PA<\/p>\n
The proposal has also been slammed by Robert Forrester, chief executive of car retailing group Vertu Motors, who warned that ECOS changes could cost up to \u00a32.5million.<\/p>\n
Around 250 members of Vertu Motors’ staff take advantage of the schemes, with Forrester calling it “completely counter-productive”.<\/p>\n
“We have written them a letter explaining to them that this will lead to a significant fall in the new car market \u2013 it\u2019s currently, we believe, five per cent of the total new car market,” Mr Forrester told The Independent.<\/p>\n
A HM Treasury spokesperson told GB News: “The Chancellor makes tax policy decisions at fiscal events. We do not comment on speculation around future changes to tax policy.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Experts are calling on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to resist hiking taxes that could cause 5,000 job losses and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[54718,51,91981,346,6642,1700,1305,388,1232,62031,285,619,16,3106,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-525610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-budget-2025","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-car-tax","11":"tag-cars","12":"tag-diesel","13":"tag-economy","14":"tag-electric-vehicles","15":"tag-lifestyle","16":"tag-money","17":"tag-petrol","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-rachel-reeves","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-uk-politics","22":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115431321647586735","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}