Immediate: March 12, 2020
Today’s Budget decision to reverse a huge tax rise in Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) on new motorhomes has been greeted by the managing director of a leading Shropshire leisure business as “fantastic news for the industry and motorhome sales”.
The tax increase of up to 705% had been levied from September 1 last year on newly registered motorhomes fitted with the new generation, greener, more energy efficient engines.
This prompted a #fairmotorhometax campaign by the National Caravan Council (NCC), the trade association for the leisure vehicle industry, which was backed by 85 cross-party MPs.
Following Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Budget statement, the NCC announced that its battle for Fair Motorhome Tax was won. Delighted NCC Director General John Lally thanked MPs, members and the industry for their support.
Mark Bebb, managing director of Shrewsbury-headquartered Salop Leisure, an award-winning caravan and motorhome dealership, said: “The Chancellor’s decision to reverse this extremely unfair tax is fantastic news for future motorhome sales and the leisure industry in general.
“Our thanks and congratulations go the NCC and partners for working so tirelessly to reverse the huge tax rise which was bad news for British manufacturing jobs and potentially damaging for UK tourism.
“The industry can now look forward to a return of the strong demand for motorhomes which we as a business experienced last year.”
Mr Lally described leisure vehicle manufacturing as a British success story. “The steady growth the motorhome industry had seen up to the time of the tax hike was almost instantly halted,” he said.
“We are delighted that our new Chancellor has so quickly understood that motorhomes and campervans should not be taxed as cars, that he has shown concern about the threats to our industry and taken this action to preserve jobs.
“Motorhomes will now return to being taxed as vans, which is logical as the vast majority are based on a commercial vehicle chassis. This is an amazing result for us, for this vibrant manufacturing industry and for the many thousands who take motorhoming holidays – the vast majority in the UK – each year.”
Picture caption:
Salop Leisure’s managing director Mark Bebb with a line-up of motorhomes.
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For more information, please contact Ed Glover, marketing manager at Salop Leisure, on Tel: 01743 282400 or Duncan Foulkes, public relations adviser, on Tel: 01686 650818.