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Fleet industry news round up June

27th June 2025

The 2025 spending review

Setting budgets and priorities

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has launched the 2025 Spending Review (Opens in new window), the UK’s first multi-year review since 2021. This sets day-to-day budgets for government departments over the next three years (2026–2029) to fund staff and deliver public services, while also establishing investment budgets through the end of the decade to improve infrastructure.

 

Clean energy mission investments

  • £2.6 billion over three years to decarbonise transport:

    • £1.4 billion to accelerate EV adoption, including zero-emission vans and HGVs.

    • £400 million to expand charging infrastructure, adding to nearly 80,000 existing chargepoints.

    • £616 million to develop walking and cycling infrastructure.

    • Continued support for Sustainable Aviation Fuel production via the Advanced Fuels Fund.

  • Over £4 billion to help drivers switch to EVs, support British carmakers, and boost international trade.

Industry response:
Toby Poston, BVRLA Chief Executive, said: “The Government is clearly committed to its road transport decarbonisation targets and giving serious thought to how it achieves them.”

Local and national transport investments:

  • £15.6 billion (by 2031–32) for city regions to invest in priorities such as zero-emission buses, trams, and local rail.

  • £2 billion over three years for Transport for London—the largest multi-year settlement in over a decade—to fund capital renewals.

  • £24 billion (2026–2030) for maintaining and upgrading motorways and roads.

Charging Infrastructure Expansion

  • Over 100,000 new local EV chargepoints to be installed via the £381 million LEVI Fund, with a new chargepoint rolling out every 29 minutes.

Innovation:

  • The Department for Transport will use artificial intelligence to automate processes in agencies such as the DVLA.

Oxford is preparing for major changes to the way fleets operate within the city. Consultations will soon launch on introducing a temporary congestion charge, alongside plans for a significant expansion of the Zero Emission Zone (ZEZ) (Opens in new window) in 2027. These measures are part of Oxfordshire County Council’s efforts to improve air quality and reduce growing congestion across the city.

To help ease traffic more quickly, the Council is considering interim measures such as a daily charge of £5 for vehicles without a permit to pass through six designated congestion charge locations in Oxford. Notably, electric vehicles (EVs) would also be required to pay this charge. All other vehicles, including heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), would be allowed access at all times without incurring the fee.

The proposed congestion charge locations (Opens in new window) are the same areas planned for new traffic filters, which are scheduled to be introduced next year.

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) is urging the Government to make electricity more affordable in order to accelerate the uptake of electric vehicles.

In its first assessment of the new Government’s progress on emissions reduction, the CCC noted that climate policies have improved since last year. With continued and increased action, the UK remains on track to meet its legally binding climate targets while also strengthening national energy security.

Key progress highlighted by the CCC includes:

  • Electric vehicles: Market share of new EVs reached 19.4% in 2024

  • Woodland creation: Up 59% compared to last year

  • Heat pump installations: Also increased by 59%

The UK saw a 2.5% reduction in emissions in 2024, marking the tenth consecutive year of sustained emissions decline (excluding the pandemic years 2020–2021). Overall, the UK’s emissions have fallen by 50.4% since 1990.

The CCC’s priority recommendations include:

  • Making electricity more affordable

  • Rapidly expanding the low-carbon electricity system

  • Publishing a comprehensive skills strategy to support the transition

The number of employees paying company car tax (Opens in new window) increased by 80,000 year-on-year, marking a 10.5% rise following last year’s 5.5% increase. The latest benefit-in-kind statistics reveal that 840,000 employees paid car tax in 2023/2024, compared to 760,000 in 2022/2023.

The shift towards electric company cars continued in 2023/2024, and the overall growth in company car numbers is partly driven by the rising popularity of salary sacrifice schemes. Last year’s FN50 survey showed that salary sacrifice reached its highest-ever market share, accounting for 6.2% of cars on the FN50 risk fleet.

However, the actual number of company car drivers may be higher due to ‘considerable underreporting’ since voluntary payrolling was introduced in April 2016.

New HMRC data also highlights a long-term downward trend in both the number of recipients and the total taxable value of car fuel benefits. Recipients decreased from 240,000 in 2011/2012 (with a taxable value of £770 million) to 40,000 in 2023/2024 (with a taxable value of £170 million). HMRC suggests this decline likely reflects rising fuel prices over the period, prompting employers and employees to reassess the value of fuel benefits relative to the tax charge.

Due to lower fuel costs around 2021-2022 during the pandemic, and increased electric vehicle adoption in 2023/2024, the total taxable value of car fuel benefits fell from £200 million in 2022/2023 to £170 million in 2023/2024.

The average taxable values for car benefit and car fuel benefit in 2023/2024 were £3,910 and £3,990, respectively, down from £4,750 and £4,260 the previous year.

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