FTA meets Transport Secretary, Geoff Hoon

Last week FTA's Chief Executive, Theo de Pencier, and Director of Policy and Communications, James Hookham, met with Transport Secretary, Geoff Hoon MP. FTA raised three key issues with the Secretary for State.

• The plight of many members in the recession and the need for Government to avoid making things worse with additional costs and taxes. FTA told the Secretary for State that the proposed increases in fees by the Department's executive agencies (VOSA, DVLA and DSA) were totally unacceptable given the plight of many businesses in the recession and that it expected him to defend transport's interests from any attempt by the Treasury to raise fuel duty to raise additional cash over the coming months

• The announcements made by the Secretary of State on the high speed rail and motorway widening in January on the same day as the decision to expand Heathrow airport. It is clear that Government capital spending in the period 2014 - 2019 will be severely curtailed as a result of the uplift in public spending linked to the recession

• The proposed liberalisation of the road haulage market by new rules on cabotage currently going through the European Parliament. The Department is almost as concerned as FTA about the impact on the UK road haulage market and the Secretary of State was taking a role himself in defending the UK market against unfair competition. FTA reminded the Secretary of State that UK fuel duty rates, currently the highest in Europe, would become utterly untenable in a fully liberalised market and that the Government needed to think up a new plan before that came into effect, probably in 2014