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Finance (No. 2) Bill

The definitions in the amendment mean that it would affect hundreds of thousands of people who do not live in settlements of 10,000. If the Government are to take seriously what the Chancellor has called the ““moral duty”” to tackle environmental change and make the polluter pay—in the direction of which the Finance Bill and Budget made the smallest possible gesture—it must be recognised that deprived and car-dependent households in sparsely populated and rural areas will be hit hardest by further changes to vehicle excise duty if the ““polluter pays”” principle is applied.