APPG 2030 Ban

Fair Fuel APPG for UK Motorists and UK Hauliers August 2021 Page | 3 Chairman’s Introduction This report could have been 500 pages long. Rest assured; it is not. Even so, there is so much evidence, opinion, and resentment regarding the uncalled-for 2030 sales ban of new diesel and petrol vehicles and with it the freezing of ICE technological advancement, the inequitable move to drive electric and how the Exchequer’s 5th largest income stream, derived without fail each year from drivers, is to be replaced in decades to come. The £35bn Fuel Duty/VAT issue will be covered in more detail in an APPG report for the Autumn Statement. We have put together a range of recommendations to Government that are both constructive and economically viable to help reduce emissions without hurting 37m drivers or UK’s economy. For brevity, we have crystallised these issues that are unnecessarily distressing UK’s 37m drivers today, into these few pages. Implicitly, we ask whether my Government’s unashamedly anti-internal combustion engine policies will achieve their coveted aims? Some of the tens of thousands of their comments are included in this report. Along with the bulk of the nation, the APPG believes millions of our fossil-fuelled vehicle drivers have been ignored for too long. They too, want clean air to breathe, a fact that is all too often dismissed. No, they want lower emissions realised through political wisdom based on real science with all headline emotion removed. If the Government acts on the basis of facts, common sense, and honesty about what is deliverable and the costs, only an exceedingly small minority of vocal green zealots will rebel. It is imperative we bring the majority of the electorate along with us in the changes we are demanding of them. Not using a ton of un-consulted millstones. It must be through consultation and consensus. That will mean compromises on all sides of the green agenda. Above all, using common sense and practical achievable solutions. There is no downside in aspiring to reduce emissions – we all wish to leave the planet in a better place than we inherited it, but we need to apply real numbers and real science to this debate. Badly phrased highly emotive headline figures fuelled through left wing media from official scientifically tenuous reports are persistently used to terrify millions of consumers, especially parents. If we cannot even accurately understand the numbers what hope do we have to really improve our air quality in a meaningful and proportionate way? The former Brexit Minister, Steve Baker MP, said in May 2021 “I’m increasingly concerned about the astronomical costs of the current Net Zero plans. If they were to be carried through to their logical conclusion, it would mean the end of the comfortable lifestyles we have enjoyed for generations. Only the well- heeled will be able to afford private cars or foreign holidays. Increasing numbers of people will be unable to take for granted heating their homes.” I share Steve’s concern along with many other of my Conservative colleagues. This ground- breaking report brings together the issues that for too long have been baselessly dismissed, to appease an uncompromising very well financed environmental campaigning lobby. We have shown evidence in this measured report that the current Government Road user transport plans are at best unwise and worst of all, ill-advised. It is not too late for a change of overall policy. A change that will be supported by the majority of the electorate, businesses, and all road users for a long time to come. Craig Mackinlay MP - Chair of APPG for Fair Fuel for UK Motorists and UK Hauliers In producing this report, we have listened to thousands of road users, from cyclists, bikers, motorists, through to our vital frontline and essential much undermined commercial vehicle drivers.

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