Newsletter - April
 
 
Editorial MG day at Brooklands




Editorial

by Kelvin Fagan

In Britain every motorist has to pay what is called Vehicle Excise Duty (VED)
The current rate of this tax for a car is £150. Last year a concession was made to this tax in favour of cars over that were built 25 or more years ago.

If your car your car was over 25, then no VED was due, thousands more owners had been looking forward to their 24 year old car turning 25, and recieving road tax free motoring.
But recently in the Budget the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, moved the goalposts, and has made a lot of enemies amongst classic car owners!
If your car ( MG or otherwise!) was built post January 1st 1973, then you can no longer look forward to saving that £150 this year, or any other year.
My own feelings are that VED should be transfered to fuel, so that you pay as you drive, I believe this would be a fairer system?
The Goverment proposals are reproduced faithfully below.



NEW VEHICLE EXCISE DUTY SYSTEM TO PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT

An ambitious reform of vehicle excise duty, to encourage cleaner vehicles and protect the environment, was announced today by Chancellor Gordon Brown.

The Government will:

  • introduce next year a new system of graduated Vehicle Excise Duty(VED) for cars, with a new lower 100 pound rate for the least polluting cars. The Government will consult on these proposals later in the year;

  • freeze VED rates for all vehicles in the meantime;

  • reduce VED rates for lorries and buses meeting low emissions standards by up to 500 pounds from 1 January 1999;

  • review the system for setting VED rates for lorries to ensure that the environmental damage caused by lorries is reflected in their VED rates;

  • limit the VED exemption for vehicles over 25 years old to those made before 1 January 1973.

    Other Notes
    1. The Chancellor announced in his Budget Statement that he was not raising VED in this Budget and that the Government would be consulting later in the year on a new environmental graduated VED for new and existing cars. He plans to introduce a starting rate of VED of 100 pounds for the least polluting cars next year.
    2. The Chancellor announced that the rate of VED for cars, taxis and light goods vehicles would be frozen, at 150 pounds per annum.
    3. The Chancellor also announced up to 500 pounds off VED rates for low emission lorries and buses (see attached table). The incentives will apply to commercially operated lorries and buses which have cleaner engines. Regulations prescribing the emission standard and the mechanisms for introducing incentives will be laid before Parliament later this year. Details of the proposal were published on 23 January. (See DETR Press Notice 049.)
    4. The VED exemption for old vehicles will continue to apply, but only to vehicles made before 1 January 1973. These vehicles will remain subject to the requirement to license annually, to display a 'nil' disc and produce a valid MOT and certificate of insurance.

    HM TREASURY PRESS OFFICE
    Press enquiries to: 0171 270 5238
    Non-media enquiries to: 0171 270 4558


    If you have access to the Internet you can find this news release at http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk
    Other Treasury material can also be found at this address.

    The above proposed changes have provoked quite a bit of discussion, and some anger! Those who own cars near to the cut off date, especially. All may not be lost, the wording says cars BUILT before 1/1/73. So if car your was registered soon after this date, it is posible it may still be eligable. You need to prove your car was BUILT before that date.

    If you have a vehicle that you believe was constructed in or before 1/1/73 you should obtain proof of construction date.

    You can get a letter from BMIHT by sending them £10 and a copy of your V5 or if you already have a Heritage certificate this will suffice.


    Address it to:
    Anders Clausager, Archivist,
    British Motor Industry Heritage Trust
    Heritage Motor Centre
    Banbury Road
    Gaydon, Warks
    CV35 0BJ

    You can then apply to your local Vehicle Registration Office (using form V10) to license in the exempt Historic Vehicle class. For your local Vehicle Registration Office look up "Transport, Department of" in your telephone directory.

    Further details from:
    Customer Enquiries (Vehicles) Unit
    DVLA, Swansea SA9 1BL
    Tel: 01792 772134 (minicom 01792 782756)
    call between 8:15 am and 4:30 pm, Monday-Friday




    Forthcoming Events

    'BROOKLANDS'

    Brooklands Guide

    April 19 is MG day at Brooklands, and if you you have never been there, then you must go this year! Apart from its own history, which is facinating in itself, you can expect to see hundreds and hundreds of MG's! The Brookland MG Day has been on the our clubs own calendar for quite a while now, and its expected that a number of Cambridge MG owners will drive the 100 or so mile to Weybridge. The same weekend I am expecting a visiting MG owner from the United States, who will be staying with my family in Cambridge, Brooklands is on his list, and both he and his wife will be travelling to the event also.
    (I'll get him to write something for a future newsletter!)




    Keep up to date with the Club activities
    PLEASE NOTE:Our meetings on the first Monday of each month will now be held at the:
    Golden Ball, Boxworth, Nr. Cambridge.

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