Chancellor Gives Historic Vehicle Owners a Break

Published: 21/03/2013

21 March 2013. Chancellor George Osborne confirmed in the 2013 Budget that a planned fuel price rise will no longer take place in September.

'I am cancelling this September's fuel duty increase altogether,' said Osborne. 'Fuel is now 13p cheaper than it would have been,' he claimed.

David Whale, FBHVC Chairman welcomed the announcement saying: 'A September fuel duty hike would have been very unwelcome adding unnecessarily to the cost of running our historic vehicles. The freeze is a pragmatic move and will bring some relief at the pumps.'

Owners of classic vehicles received another boost in the Budget. Classic vehicle tax exemption has been moved forward by a year, so vehicles built before January 1, 1974, will now qualify for a free VED disc. Previously this applied only to vehicles built before January 1, 1973. This comes in to force April 2014.

Motorists wanting to declare their vehicles as being off the road will no longer have to do so on an annual basis, because SORN declarations are now open ended. Commenting on this change Mr Whale said, “Whilst I can understand the Government wanting to reduce administration costs by this move, the removal of the obligation to declare SORN annually will make it more difficult for historic vehicle researchers to trace and track vehicles in long term restoration or storage.”

The road fund licence pricing system remains unchanged, and the Chancellor confirmed that the Government has no plans for significant reforms to VED in this parliament.