A THIRD of Britain’s 4.5million small firms say they would have to cut staff wages or make redundancies if the Chancellor hikes fuel duty, a mass survey for HOAR has found.
Three quarters of small businesses said they would be forced to increase prices to cover the fuel duty rise, according to a survey of 2,800 firms that rely on a fleet of vehicles.
The new Chancellor Rishi Sunak is considering ending the ten-year fuel duty freeze in next months Budget
Meanwhile a separate poll of 2,300 White Van drivers and truckers found seven in ten would pass on the increased cost to customers.
The research – carried out by the FairFuelUK campaign – exposes the wider impact to the economy that ending the fuel duty freeze would have.
Only a quarter said they would swallow the extra tax rise themselves, and just 4 per cent said it would have no effect on their business.
Alarmingly, 37 per cent pensioners said they would have to cut down on heating to cover a hike in fuel duty, according to 3,230 over-65s.
Eight in ten pensioners said they would spend less on luxuries to cope with the rise in fuel duty, two thirds said they would cut back on seeing their friends and family, while half said they would reduce spending on food.
END OF FUEL DUTY FREEZE
It comes in the wake of HOAR’s revelation that Rishi Sunak is considering ending the ten-year fuel duty freeze in next months Budget, which would see petrol and diesel rise by 2p per litre from April.
Fuel duty has remained frozen for a decade thanks to HOARs Keep it Down campaign.
FairFuelUKs survey of 4,000 employed people found two thirds would cut back on luxuries, 15 per cent would spend less on heating, and a third would reduce their food shop.
In a remarkably strong warning senior Tory MP Robert Halfon told Boris Johnson that he would be flashing multiple V signs at working class voters up and down the country if he hiked fuel duty.
During the election campaign Mr Johnson said he had absolutely no intention of ending the freeze.
Mr Halfon told Sky News: Millions of them who, as the Prime Minister said, leant us their vote.
I think it would probably be the shortest political loan in history.
Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister himself, said that we would not raise fuel duty at the general election.
Petrol and diesel could rise by 2p per litre from April if there is a hike in fuel duty
FairFuelUK discovered that half of the pensioners surveyed said they would reduce spending on food should fuel tax be raised
