Budget 2016: fuel duty frozen and autonomous vehicles to test on UK roads

George Osborne has announced that fuel duty will been frozen for the sixth year in a row, “saving £75 a year for the average driver and £250 for the average small business".

He also used this week’s budget to announce that driverless cars will be tested on Britain’s motorways.

Driverless cars

The Chancellor, who delivered the budget to the House of Commons earlier today, outlined plans for trials of fully-autonomous vehicles on UK roads in 2017 to help the country to “lead the world in new technologies and infrastructure”.

He has already stated that “driverless cars could represent the most fundamental change to transport since the invention of the internal combustion engine", but acknowledged that safety must be ensured, and that’s what the trials will test.

The trials announced in the budget will be funded by the government’s £100m Intelligent Mobility Fund.

Nissan and Tesla are already working on autonomous technology, and it has recently been announced that autonomous lorries will be tested on UK roads this year.

Fuel duty

Fuel duty on diesel and unleaded petrol has been frozen at the 57.95p per litre for the sixth year running.

Petroleum revenue tax

Osbourne also announced that petroleum revenue tax for oil producers will be “effectively abolished”. He also said that there will be a 50% tax reduction on oil for producers, bringing the figure down to 10%. This may impact on the price of fuel at petrol pumps in the near future. 

Infrastructure

Other motoring-related announcements include the halving of toll costs on the River Severn crossing between England and Wales (currently it costs £6.60 for a car to cross), a new tunnel road from Manchester to Sheffield will be built (it could be the longest tunnel in Europe), and the A66 and A69 will be upgraded "as part of the 'Northern powerhouse' to rebalance our country".

Company car tax

Company car tax rates have been announced until up until 2020 and will continue to be based on CO2 emissions until April 2021. 

Read What Car?’s full guide to company car tax rates

Read more:

What is a truly autonomous car?

Google autonomous vehicle crash - are we ready for self-driving cars?