Figures released by car manufacturers show November 4×4 sales have dropping by 15% compared with last year, with a 6% overall drop during 2006 so far.
Sian Berry, Principal Speaker of the Green Party and one of the founders of the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s, has been working to both make urban 4x4s unfashionable and gain higher taxes for highly polluting cars for several years. The group recently celebrated the announcement of a planned £25 congestion charge in London for vehicles in tax band G. Green Party members in Richmond upon Thames were also the driving force behind the Council’s new scale of parking charges – announced last month – which will see gas-guzzler like 4x4s pay three times the normal rate for a residents’ permit.
Sian said, "I am delighted to hear today that 4×4 sales are moving in the right direction at last. A lot of people are increasingly thinking about their effect on climate change and making more responsible choices, thanks to campaigns like ours and the work of forward-thinking politicians like the Greens on the London Assembly."
"But our campaign isn’t over yet. Sales of urban 4x4s this year may be down, but they are still double the rate a decade ago and there are still plenty of drivers we need to reach."
The Chancellor is expected to raise fuel duty in line with inflation in today’s Pre-Budget Report, and may increase vehicle excise duty for the most polluting cars. This will add to a £45 increase for cars with the highest emissions of carbon dioxide that was introduced in this year’s March budget, and which was dismissed by Greens as ‘useless’.
"The Chancellor is playing catch-up with public opinion on this issue," said Sian, "He has had government research on his desk for three years now that shows significant differences in tax bands of more than £1000 per year are needed for most drivers to move to cleaner vehicles, and yet he hasn’t even been increasing fuel duty in that time."
"Gordon Brown’s Pre-Budget Report needs to send a very strong message to those still buying dirty and dangerous cars if he is to prove he is serious about tackling climate change."