Bikers left out in the cold: What the Chancellor's budget means for UK motorcyclists

Potholes and petrol were the two obvious takeaways in the 2023 spring budget, with fuel taxation remaining the same and £200 million set aside to combat the hazardous craters in the UK road network.

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, announced to Parliament last Wednesday that the 5p fuel duty cut which was brought in this time last year will now be extended for a further 12 months, saving 85p on a typical 17-litre tank of petrol. The extension of the cut has, naturally, been welcomed by major motoring organisations.

Jack Cousens, the AA’s head of roads policy, said: “We are pleased the Chancellor has listened to the AA and frozen fuel duty. Not only will this save drivers ‘heavy duty’ pain at the pump but it will help keep the price of goods and services down as they are mainly transported by road. Crippling road fuel costs are also a major driver of inflation.”

“Putting the continued 5p fuel duty cut in perspective, 28% of drivers (rising to 40% in the lower income group) buy a set amount of fuel whenever they go to a fuel station. Finances of many drivers and families are so tight that a £3.30 hike to the cost of a tank of fuel would have tipped many of those knife-edge budgets into much greater difficulty.”

RAC head of roads policy Nicholas Lyes mirrored those sentiments saying: “The cut has given drivers some much-needed relief in what has been the most torrid year ever at the pumps, with price records being broken even after duty was cut. Given the importance of driving for consumers and businesses, duty should be kept low.”

However, the announced pothole funding, which will become available in 2024, has been met less enthusiastically with the RAC saying it “would be unlikely to make a big difference to our dilapidated road systems”.

Lyes added: “Last year the Government spent £1.125bn on local roads in England which is in stark contrast to the £7bn that went into major roads from car tax, despite local roads covering so many more miles.”

These comments were added to by the Chair of the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) Rick Green, who said: “The Chancellor is right to recognise that potholes on our local roads are a curse, but the key thing is they are not inevitable, they are the symptom off a network underfunded for many years.

“Unlike other transport networks, there is no visible long-term investment plan for local roads and without one, road users won’t see any real improvement in structural conditions on the roads they use every day and on which all other locally provided services rely.”