OBR's-Fuel-Duty-Bombshell

17 ÓCentre for Economics and Business Research Table 4 Annual spending on purchase of cars and spending on fuel £ by income decline Figures only relate to households with cars. Source Family Spending ONS adjusted for proportion with access to a vehicle Lowest ten per cent 1917 Second decile group 1608 Third decile group 1853 Fourth decile group 2002 Fifth decile group 2356 Sixth decile group 3622 Seventh decile group 3143 Eighth decile group 3690 Ninth decile group 4520 Highest ten per cent 5563 4.6. Ability to use public transport or walk Another suggestion often made is that public transport or walking is an acceptable alternative to car usage. The government produces statistics that show who has access to what facility within various different travel times. The data comes from the government’s travel time research16 and is shown in Error! Reference source not found.. For the majority of those living in urban areas, most services are accessible by walking and public transport. But even for them 30.8% do not have access to any major employer (>5,000 jobs) and 60.2% do not have access to a hospital within 30 minutes. 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)17is completely different. The bulk of people living there do not have easy access to services by public transport or walking. The data shows that 82.6% lack access to major employers within 30 minutes, 36.1% lack access to secondary schools, 52.2% lack access to further education, 94.1% lack access to hospitals and 47.2% 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. 16 DfT Journey Time Statistics: www.gov.uk/government/collections/journey-time-statistics data-tables(files JTS0102, JTS0202, JTS0302) 17 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/912408/Rural_population__August_ 2020.pdf

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