Ignore the howls around pay-per-mile, chancellor. We can’t afford not to tax electric cars

<p>The issue of how motoring taxes should change as we decarbonise the economy has been dodged for too long. Car salesmen need to get real </p><p>If you want a document to give you sleepless nights, the Office for Budget Responsibility’s biennial Fiscal Risks and Sustainability report is a go-to publication. This is the one that looks to the horizon and covers everything from demographic trends to state pension promises to the climate crisis.</p><p>The headline finding in this July’s version was a true jaw-dropper. The UK’s public finances <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jul/08/uk-public-finances-obr-national-debt-gdp">are on an unsustainable long-term trajectory</a> because government debt would rise to a remarkable 270% of GDP by the early 2070s – up from almost 100% today – if current policies were left unchanged.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2025/nov/06/ignore-the-howls-around-pay-per-mile-chancellor-we-cant-afford-not-to-tax-electric-cars">Continue reading...</a>