Money is tight in “black hole” Britain, what with Rachel Reeves apparently finding herself £22 billion short. So, here’s an idea for her budget: how about bunging the car industry billions of quid?
It’s the proposal from Mike Hawes, the boss of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, the lobbyist for the four-wheel fraternity in Britain, spanning the likes of Vauxhall, Volvo and Volkswagen. He’s spotted that, despite his members’ best efforts, sales of electric vehicles (EVs) are refusing to motor. So what better for it than to demand “temporarily halving VAT on new EV purchases”: a move, he says, that would “put more than two million new zero emission vehicles, rather than petrol or diesel, on the road by 2028”?
As he puts