• Masterlease comments on the pre-budget report - Oct. '07
• Licenced not to kill - Aug. '07
• Food for thought - biofuel comment - Jul. '07
• Low emission plans wide of the mark - May '07
• Call to tackle downtime - May '07
• Everybody's fuel - Biofuel comment May '07
• Park Strife - parking training for drivers - April '07
• Ensuring Continuity - business continuity release - April '07
• Masterlease launches FAGNAV™ - 1st April 2007

• Budget Comment - Mar. '07

• Everybody leaves empty-handed - Feb. '07
• Hot convertibles - Jan. '07
• Beware of poor carbon copies - Jan. 2007
• Speed limiter legislation - Dec. '06

Budget Comment - Mar. '07

‘No surprise’ final Budget from Gordon Brown says Masterlease.

The 2007 Budget provided few surprises for the fleet industry with the annual fine-tuning being focused on the usual, and expected, Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) and fuel prices. What had been anticipated and failed to materialise were revisions to AMAP rates and capital allowances for cars. 

Said Peter Tatlock, managing director at Masterlease “Whilst I applaud the Government’s decision to continue its consultation on AMAPs - with the hope that it makes the right decisions eventually - the downside is that the uncertainty for customers and the fleet industry around ECO schemes, and cash for car more broadly, continues and that difficult decisions get put off.

“Interestingly the changes to fuel prices and VED will probably do little to change buyer behaviour amongst fleets or drivers, the additional costs either not being significant enough or simply unavoidable. The only real result will be an increase in income for the Exchequer rather than environmental benefits.”

On the proposed two per cent discount to company car benefit in kind taxation for selecting vehicles capable of running on 85 per cent bio-ethanol from April 2008. Peter added:

“This is an interesting announcement that could mystify the market as there is no current forecourt infrastructure for bio-ethanol and only a few manufacturers such as Saab that are producing the vehicles that can run on the hi-blend fuel. Also, for those drivers who do switch, there is nothing proposed to prevent them filling up with standard petrol so benefiting from the tax reduction without delivering the environmental benefit – this feels like a somewhat incomplete initiative at this stage.”