THE ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF THE HISTORIC AND CLASSIC MOTOR INDUSTRY IN THE UK

9 2. Introduction and summary 2.1 Introduction This is a study of the economic impact of classic and historic vehicles. It sets out to measure the contribution of classic and historic vehicles to the UK economy, the environmental profile of the sector, the contribution of the sector to skills in the economy and the sector’s contribution to the heritage. It uses input-output modelling to estimate both the economic and environmental impact of the sector. Cebr specialises in economic impact studies. In recent years we have carried out a range of studies for sectors including the maritime sector, ports, a range of transport projects, the Royal Navy, the arts and creative sector for the Arts Council, the offshore wind sector, the literary and bookselling sector, the Scotch whisky sector, the Heritage sector for the Historic Houses Association and Historic England and we have made a minor speciality of evaluating the benefits of education and skills, particularly for apprentices. Since many of these studies are commissioned directly or indirectly by government or by other bodies that wish to influence policy, we go to great lengths to ensure that our research is consistent and comparable and that our metrics are of direct policy relevance. We were therefore delighted to be commissioned by the historic rallying organisation HERO-ERA to evaluate the economic and social impact of historic and classic vehicles. This report shows the results of this analysis. We are not the first to look at this and indeed much of our work would not have been possible without pioneering work carried out by others, especially the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs. We have also been helped directly by a range of other bodies, particularly including the Royal Automobile Club, Bicester Heritage and many owners clubs. In addition, a series of meetings arranged by Bicester Heritage have been especially helpful in providing real life experience to match the data calculated using economic models. We are especially grateful to Starter Motor and the Heritage Skills Academy; to Fuzz Townsh end’s Classic Oils ; to Classic Performance Engineering; to th e Vintage Car Radiator Company a n d Kingsbury Racing. Daniel Geoghegan and many of his colleagues, particularly Tiggy Atkinson, have been of special help and also Dominic Taylor Lane of the Association of Heritage Engineers. Our normal approach is to use data from the latest complete calendar year. For this report what would have been a standard practice has become a necessity since Covid-19 has so affected the data for 2020 as to make it atypical. Figures in this report are for 2019 unless stated otherwise. 2.2 Summary Our main conclusions are: 1) FBHVC estimate that there are 1.54 million historic vehicles in the UK. Cebr estimate that there are in addition 1.47 million classic vehicles that satisfy the HMRC definition of classic vehicle, giving a total of 3.01 million classic and historic vehicles.