Richard Holden, MP for North West Durham, spoke today in the House of Commons during Treasury Questions where Jesse Norman MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, assured him that following his successful campaign Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, will come up to the North West Durham and visit Elddis (Erwin Hymer Group UK).
In September 2019, Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) and road tax on new motorhomes faced increases of about 705%. This was due to EU Regulation 2018/1832, which stated that motorhomes were to be classed and therefore taxed differently. People that were buying a new motorhome suddenly had to pay about £5,000 in tax in just five years of ownership, compared to a previous tax of about £1,200. As a result of this, motorhomes sales around the country dropped around 15 per cent. Elddis had seen sales drop and, as a result of this, manufacturing has dropped, and staff faced redundancy.
As soon as Richard was elected he started a huge campaign to get the tax reversed, saying at the time "When I was elected as MP for North West Durham, I had never heard of the motorhomes tax – it was never mentioned when I was out campaigning and the previous MP had never flagged it as an issue, either locally or in Westminster. However, it became clear very quickly that it was going to have a hugely detrimental impact on the constituency unless I stepped in. It seemed a really counter-productive tax, one that disproportionately affected the North East."
Richard visited the Elddis factory, which you can read about here. He raised the story in the national press, which you can read about here and here, got the BBC up to North West Durham to discuss the issue, met with the Chancellor several times and met with Downing Street and the Treasury. It was a massive ask of the Chancellor but it was costing the industry as a whole £25 million and livelihoods North West Durham.
Richard’s campaign was eventually successful, with the Chancellor confirming in the Spring Budget that the tax would be scrapped – you can read about this here. Not only has this saved hundreds of local jobs, but it was a boost to our domestic tourism. You can read Elddis’ press release about it here.
Richard adding at the time "I was absolutely delighted that the Chancellor took the decision to reverse the tax. I was really pleased that the negative effects caused by the tax were recognised. As the MP, I am not going to stand to one side and let local businesses struggle and employees lose their jobs. It was such an effort to get the tax reversed and, in politics, nothing is certain until it is done, so I was so pleased that all our efforts paid off. I will always work extremely hard for the constituency and put all my efforts into campaigning against things that have a negative effect on us. The Government wants to make sure that the economy works for everybody."
Since Elddis has been growing, even looking to hire more people alongside the 80 young people already employed through the Elddis Academy in 2018, a partnership with Derwentside College (read about Richard’s visit to the college here).
Richard has been very keen to have the Chancellor come up and see the how the reversal has helped the community and see what more can be done for manufactures like Elddis across North West Durham.
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