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Finance Bill

As is the hon. Gentlemen's wont, he jumps ahead of me. I was referring to table 2, which relates to vehicles after the first-year loading. I am about to refer to table 1 and vehicles in the first year. I think the small element of retrospection is acceptable. Those vehicles with emissions of 255 g registered after 23 March 2006 will not get the discount from £435 to £245 that those registered before that date will get. Turning to table 1, to which the hon. Gentleman referred in his speech and intervention, there is a risk in relation to shifting cars in the showroom. As far as I know, almost everyone who buys a new car does so with the vehicle excise duty paid—it is shown on the invoice. Just as we see advertisements for "No VAT", which are not technically accurate as a discount is being given equivalent to the VAT chargeable on a list price, we may see such sales techniques creep into advertisements with regard to VED—for example, "No VED loading on a brand new car." VED loading simply on a first-year basis is not the way to go. As the hon. Gentleman put it, it would be a variation on a showroom tax. Company cars constitute quite a high proportion of the UK car market. Three years ago, the Liberal Democrats commendably picked up my proposal of about four years ago for swingeing vehicle excise duty on new cars bought after an announced change in the taxation regime had taken effect. That would be not merely a first-year loading. For example, under table 1, a car that emits 255 g or more of CO2 emissions would pay £950 at the standard rate in its first year, dropping to £435. For that kind of vehicle, swingeing vehicle excise duty is needed every year, not only to dissuade people from buying it, but to make them bear in mind the resale of the car. Such swingeing vehicle excise duty, as I proposed one year, although I put the grams per km threshold higher, would affect resale massively, and cause company as well as private buyers to think about whether they would buy such a polluting vehicle. They might be able to afford to run such a car year to year, but they would not be able to afford the hit on the resale price. Previously, I have had complaints from the public, who misunderstand the proposal. It is not an attack on 4x4 drivers. The last time I looked, nine out of the 10 most polluting cars on sale in the UK were not 4x4s. The one 4x4 in that top 10 was a Land Rover, which is produced in the United Kingdom. The others in the top 10 were sports cars and top-of-the-range cars such as Bentleys, which have huge engines and are huge vehicles. I urge the Government to consider again an ongoing—not retrospective—swingeing rate of vehicle excise duty for the most polluting vehicles. That would discourage people from buying such vehicles, not only because of their running costs but because of the adverse affect on their resale price. I hope the Minister will assure me that the Government will consider that in future years.