Autumn Statement 2015: Chancellor accused of ignoring vital transport funding
The Chancellor’s failure to address the urgent need to inject £150m into truck driver training threatens the UK’s economic recovery, the Road Haulage Association has said.
Responding to today’s Autumn Statement, RHA chief executive Richard Burnett said: “Our industry is suffering a chronic shortage of 45,000-50,000 drivers. This is jeopardising supply chains and threatens to put the brakes on the economic recovery.
“This crisis will only get worse as 1 in 5 five of the current HGV workforce will reach retirement age in the next 10 years.
“We are doubly disappointed as we have figures that clearly show the £150 million would be more than recouped through taxes paid by the new drivers.
“The new driving jobs created by this funding would generate additional income tax, National Insurance, and up to an extra £275 million in fuel duty revenue due to the extra truck miles driven.
“In addition, the extra investment in UK skills would reduce the industry’s reliance on drivers from abroad, which the RHA estimates leads to approximately £180 million per annum being sent back to drivers’ home countries.
“This is money that would otherwise be spent in the UK, supporting employment, generating VAT and boosting UK growth.”
Apprenticeship Levy
Referring to George Osborne’s confirmation of an apprenticeship levy rate of 0.5 per cent, Mr Burnett added: “At present, this industry has no apprenticeship for lorry drivers, the main employment category for transport firms. A third Trailblazer bid is under consideration by the Business Department.
“It is essential that we get a driver apprenticeship, otherwise the levy is it simply a tax on payroll. An apprenticeship without funding for the core element of training ahead of the HGV driving test would be largely meaningless. That is what would happen under current Business Department policy - a policy that makes no sense.”
“Training for the test lies at the core of any haulage driver apprenticeship and sets the quality platform for the apprenticeship as a whole and the RHA is calling on skills minister Nick Boles to accept that truth and to scrap the opposition to funding driver training.”
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