Climate change, despite the best efforts of the Credit Crunch, is still top of the agenda. Various Government Departments’ constantly urge commuter’s to ‘leave the car behind and use public transport’. The Chancellor has changed Vehicle Excise Duty (Car Tax) to penalise those with high CO2 outputs, parking costs are always increasing, insurance tax is levied on premiums and fuel tax rises with the wholesale cost of fuel. All these taxes partially designed to increase the cost of motoring and ‘encourage’ people to take to the rail and bus for the daily commute.
Work Wise UK (www.workwiseuk.org), a Government backed campaigning body suggests “smarter commuting” by getting people to travel outside peak periods and urging employers to allow flexible working for employees. They note “the average commute will produce one tonne of CO2 per person per year”. Work Wise even quote that 20 people are killed and 250 seriously injured every WEEK, in crashes involving someone who was driving or riding for work purposes.
The BBC quoted a study by the University of the West of England, that the average commuter spends 139 hours a year getting to and from work, and the Guardian (02-09-05) noted that “Long distance commuting is up by one third”. They go on to say “800,000 workers now travel more than 30 miles to work and that most of long distance commutes are in the London & South-East region”. Managers and senior business officials make up 30% of this long-distance group and interestingly those with higher education qualifications spend 50% longer travelling to work than others.
What does all this add up to? Government want more people off the road. As a society we need to reduce CO2 emissions and top executives are travelling further than ever before. The solution is to move people closer to their work so they do not clog up the roads, so Why not encourage the long-distance commuting executives to relocate nearer to work? The benefits are substantial - less stress on arriving at work, probably more hours spent at work, less CO2 emissions, more time with the family, better physical health, reduced risk of death & injury, improved personal wealth, less congestion on the roads improving traffic flow and reducing travelling downtime, and so on.
So how can Government begin to leverage these benefits? Re-evaluate the Relocation Tax Allowance for a start. The current 15 year old allowance of £8000 is now only worth the equivalent of £5954.09 after inflation. If Government just wanted to keep pace with inflation then the allowance should already be £10,678.06 If the Government just wanted to keep pace with their increases in Stamp Duty, then they should reset the Allowance to well over £40,000. Maybe then business would use the economic encouragement to relocate their staff and help reduce the amount of long-distance commuting.
I believe that the Chancellor needs to address this issue at the next budget. Let me know what you think and I will pass on your views.
Adrian Leach - Director. aleach@hcr.co.uk
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