TPA's VED Victory saves taxpayers £465 million

One positive from yesterday's Pre-Budget report was the delaying of the unfair retrospective rise in Vehicle Excise Duty. The campaign the TPA spearheaded against the rising car tax has - for 2009/10 at least - saved motorists £465 million.

This is a great success for the TPA and for all those who have campaigned so hard against these rises. Of course, now we need to push for the plans to be shelved permanently, but a one-year reprieve is certainly welcome.

Looking to the future, it is hard to imagine that Alistair Darling will be able to justify this unpopular hike on car tax and the accompanying burden of "showroom tax" in Spring 2010, either. For a start we will either still be in a recession then or embarking on our recovery from it, so punishing motorists and the car trade further would be economically harmful. In cynical terms, it is also likely to be election year and, as the outcry against them has shown, these plans are highly unpopular.

Having stopped the plans for now, we will be working hard to make sure the Government is never able to introduce them at all.