CEBR Fuel Duty Impact - Nov 2020

12 © Centre for Economics and Business Research The position for the 9.5 million people who live in rural areas (9,529,700 or 17.0% of the population live in rural areas) 8 is completely different. The bulk of people living there do not have easy access to services by public transport or walking. The data shows that 85% lack access to major employers within 30 minutes, 38% lack access to secondary schools, 52% lack access to further education, 90% lack access to hospitals and 47% lack access to a town centre without using a car. It is not realistic to suggest that they do not use cars. So, for a wide group of people public transport or walking is not an option. Figure 1 Accessiblity of employment and services by public transport/walking 3.5. Disability There is a final group who need door to door transport. Government data estimates that there are 6.5 million people in the UK who suffer from disability related to mobility 9 . Of these, the data says that 49.1% were of working age in 2011/12. For these 6.5 million people, public transport is of less value and i s not so easily substituted for transport door to door in one’s own vehicle. 3.6. Impact by region Table 5 Proportion of total household expenditure on petrol and diesel by region Northern Ireland 6.21% Wales 4.82% East Midlands 4.50% West Midlands 4.35% Eastern 4.27% North East 4.26% South West 4.03% Yorks and Humber 3.89% North West 3.86% Scotland 3.84% South East 3.59% London 2.20% 8 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/912408/Rural_population__August_ 2020.pdf 9 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/321594/disability-prevalence.pdf