Standing Charges on utilities, Is it possible to rid of

squirrelpie

My point is the money you pay in VED etc. doesn't go to fund road maintenance directly, it's not hypothecated for this purpose. So the cost of VED and the state of the roads have nothing to do with one another.

It would have been better to have said that then :)

But irrespective of whether there's a formal link between VED or fuel duty and road maintenance, voters see a link, and so does the government. That's why they've introduced a mileage charge for electric vehicles as well as the VED.

HalfFull

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81962877#Comment_81962877

I'd never though to "ask***" until just now, but according to my favorite search engine the UK spends bout £10-12B per year on roads, and has a tax take of £8Bn from VED. So at a simple level it's a good job VED isn't linked to the state of the roads, they would be alot worse

***Obviously this was a 2 mins research exercise and there will be errors in my numbers, but the general impression given is the VED dwarfs the roads budget, that doesn't appear to be true. I suspect standing charge and newtork maintanance costs have a similar relationship

Emmia

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81963145#Comment_81963145

This is exactly the point - it's why roads are funded out of general taxation, and not VED. Fundamentally, if people want better roads / healthcare / social care… then taxes (generally) will need to rise.

But no one wants to pay more tax...

WiserMiser

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81963145#Comment_81963145

>'according to my favorite search engine the UK spends bout £10-12B per year on roads, and has a tax take of £8Bn from VED. So at a simple level it's a good job VED isn't linked to the state of the roads, they would be a lot worse'

@HalfFull Totally wrong conclusion — you've forgotten the 52.95p duty added to every litre of fuel. Amazingly, the duty is then subject to VAT (tax on tax !), and the duty is also about to be increased by 5p/litre.

Fiscal drag also means that more and more relatively modest vehicles are falling into the so-called 'Luxury' class hence subject to a massive VED surcharge for many years.

Motorists are being short changed.

Ectophile

What confuses things is that the government takes your VED, but most roads are the responsibility of your local county or city council. So they don't even get the tax.

Edit: I have just realised we've gone totally off topic here!

always_learning22

I can’t help but feel like all these fixed charges, car tax, council tax, standing charges on energy, start to add up and feel like hidden taxes for infrastructure.

It does make me wonder what income tax and council tax are actually covering if not these essentials. Maybe I’m oversimplifying it, but it’s hard not to question it when you see it all stacked together.

Yorkie1

My council issues a chart each year with the council tax demand, which shows exactly what it's being spent on.

TroubledTarts

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81964312#Comment_81964312

The very simplistic answer is that the majority of households in the UK are in tax deficit, they get more out than they put in.

I think the figure is 60% then the next 10-15% are not meaningfully putting more in so that leaves roughly 25% to make a dent into the other 75%

So the constant need to keep raising everything in taxes and giving less back is what we have to get used to.

born_again

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81964649#Comment_81964649

https://www.britishgas.co.uk/energy/guides/standing-charges.html

Arctos

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81961619#Comment_81961619

We rented when we left the parental home [many years ago!]. There was a gas meter, but no gas appliances, and I queried the standing charge with the supply company. Their response was to offer to remove the meter; however, I quickly realised that I could end up with a bigger bill from the landlord if my action left the property in a different state to that at the start of my tenancy. So, removing a supply facility is not always the obvious answer.