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Finance (No. 2) Bill

If the hon. Gentleman has such resources at his fingertips, he could have raised the issue himself. If the communities that my hon. Friends described had access to buses, they would happily provide subsidised fares, but for many of those communities there are no bus services and to provide them would be worse for the environment. An equivalent service to the one in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency could not be provided. I draw the hon. Gentleman’s attention to the comments made to those on his Front Bench in the discussion of minimum pensions income. His Front-Bench team will remind him why it is not possible to give detailed information. The reason why we refer to Treasury regulations is that there is no UK definition of a remote rural area. There are definitions that apply to England and Wales, but if those were mentioned in the new clauses and amendments, they would not include Scotland. My hon. Friend the Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey (Danny Alexander) is therefore trying to produce enabling measures in order to provoke a debate. Transport costs alone make fuel significantly more expensive in the highlands than in more densely populated parts of the UK. We are trying to respond to problems experienced across the country. All the amendments and new clauses in the group try to deal with those problems in different ways. One solution would be to more forward more quickly on road user charging, which would be a more flexible way of discouraging car journeys in congested areas, which cause the most pollution, while not penalising those who do not generate congestion and who do not have access to public transport alternatives. If the Minister can tell us that the Government intend to push forward on such a long-term policy, we would welcome it, and we would welcome a time scale. Costs are much higher in rural areas and there is no immediate solution. The 2003 national travel survey for England showed that half the residents in rural settlements of fewer than 3,000 people lived within 30 minutes’ walk of a bus stop. That compares with 95 per cent. of people living in larger urban areas. I am sure that in many parts of the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey people will have an even longer walk. Those rural residents are likely to spend more per week on transport than their urban counterparts. The expenditure and food survey for 2002-03 showed that households in rural areas with a population of fewer than 3,000 spent more than £70 a week on transport, compared with £45.50 for those living in urban areas. Half their expenditure goes in operating costs, a large proportion of which is the cost of fuel. New clause 4 seeks to lower the rate of duty in remote areas, as defined by the Treasury, and would give the Government the powers to apply for a derogation from the energy products directive, as has recently been successfully undertaken by the French Government. I understand that that was unanimously approved by the EU, as was referred to earlier, which means that it must have had the support of the UK Government. Why does the Minister think that remote and rural areas in the UK do not fulfil the same objective socio-economic conditions as the regions in which the derogation is applied in France? Because of the lack of transport alternatives, consumers are unable to respond to price incentives. They just have to bear the higher cost, since there will be no cheaper alternative. Hence this proposal is logical and fair, not least because incomes also tend to be lower in more isolated and often more economically deprived constituencies. Although I represent a constituency at the opposite end of the UK to that of my hon. Friend, many of the experiences and difficulties that he has described are familiar to me and my constituents. The amendments tabled in my name seek to achieve similar ends to the new clause, but I am not proposing that both alternatives should be put forward simultaneously. As I have said, we seek to propose a range of alternatives to highlight the situation and provide the Government with a range of approaches. We know that the alternative proposed by my hon. Friend works because it has been applied in other countries. Unfortunately, because all our amendments have not been selected we will not be able to vote on the whole package that we have proposed, so I hope that my hon. Friend will press his new clause to allow the Treasury at least to consider the issues. The fundamental reason for providing such a concession in my amendments is to recognise the high cost of travel in rural areas. They allow for the revalorisation of fuel duty to continue. We welcomed that when the Chancellor announced it in the Budget. If that continues, and if it is the Government’s intention to increase the share of green taxation as a proportion of the total tax take, it will be those people whose behaviour will not be affected by the increases who will have to bear the costs. Therefore, we seek some way of offsetting those costs for people who cannot change their behaviour. I draw the Minister’s attention to two issues. The first is the extent to which the differential for the new highest band, which the Chancellor announced in the Budget, will impact on behaviour, and how it will encourage more environmentally responsible choices. In his Budget speech, the Chancellor said:"““I want to do more to encourage cleaner fuels and cars. I propose to radically reform vehicle excise duty. I am introducing…a new band of £210 for the small number of new cars that are the most polluting””.—[Official Report, 22 March 2006; Vol. 444, c. 295.]" In a written answer the Financial Secretary gave the number of people who would be persuaded by that amazing new band to change their behaviour. As a result of these proposals, carbon emissions will fall by a fraction—less than 1 per cent. Therefore, our amendments seek to point out the incredibly limited impact that the Government’s proposals will have and to present ways in which they might like to achieve a more significant impact on behaviour. In this respect, people in rural areas, as well as in urban areas, will have the opportunity to exercise choice to offset those costs. When they are purchasing a new car they can decide, like people in urban areas, to buy a car with lower emissions. However, they cannot decide how much they pay for their fuel. That is the inequality that we seek to address. I hope that the Government will at least recognise some of the difficult circumstances that many of my constituents and those of my hon. Friend and others in rural areas across the country face, and I hope that they are prepared to take on board the need to recognise their difficult circumstances. If he does not wish to accept any of our proposals, I would be interested to hear how he plans to ensure that people in rural areas are protected from any further measures that the Government may plan to take in relation to fuel duty and vehicle excise duty that will significantly increase their transport costs despite the fact that ultimately they will have no alternative to the car and hence will have to bear those costs rather than change their behaviour to the benefit of the environment.