THE Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA) has urged chancellor Rachel Reeves to provide ‘stability and certainty’ for the sector, ahead next week’s autumn budget.
The CPA has written a letter, calling on the treasury to consider four key areas.
The trade body wants to see a commitment to a timetable for extending the now permanent Full Expensing Allowance, to every aspect of the construction plant hire industry. The CPA is also urging an extension to the 2022 cut in fuel duty for two years, given increased global uncertainty due to conflict in the Middle East and the war in Ukraine.
The letter also calls for a temporary reintroduction of the rebate for HVO to the construction industry for at least the next two years, and to explore the feasibility of a trial scrappage scheme for NRMM (Non-Road Mobile Machinery) operators operating in Freeport zones, with a view to widening the scheme on a national basis, whilst engaging with the hire sector to set ‘realistic goals’ on the phasing out of fossil-fuelled machinery.
Steve Mulholland, CPA CEO, said, “The budget is an opportunity for the government to provide the stability and certainty, through consistent workflows, that the plant hire sector needs to invest in new equipment and technologies. While it is encouraging to see announcements on house building and planning reform, construction’s absence from the government’s industrial strategy was notable.
“We can only drive lasting and sustained economic growth by updating and improving our infrastructure. This means making long-term decisions and having the commitment to stick with them. This can only happen with the efforts of the UK’s plant-hire sector. We urge the Treasury to take on board the recommendations in our submission and work with CPA members in helping achieve these aims.
“If the government is committed to delivering economic growth and increasing business investment, the chancellor should resist calls to scrap the freeze in fuel duty. CPA members continue to operate their businesses on very tight margins and any increase in additional costs will have an adverse impact on investment in the short-medium term. Oil prices remain volatile and such a move would penalise workers and the businesses that employ them.”
