Red diesel - today's hot issue.

Fuel Threat To Canal Boaters - This Is Money.

Two big issues are dominating the conversations of liveaboard canal boaters at the moment.  Red diesel and continuous cruising licences.  I've been wary of tackling either, but I know I have to soon.  Here's a toe in the water on the subject of red diesel.

On Sunday I filled up Granny's front and rear diesel tanks with the 'red' stuff, and it cost me close to £100.  That's three weeks of heat and a couple of months of hot water and electricity.  That's 2 1/2 times what it cost me when I bought Granny in 1999.  And that could be cheap if plans go ahead next year to push up the duty on red diesel to road levels.  But the stories in the newspapers are all about diesel for farmers and road vehicles; nothing about canal boaters. 

I've been hawking the story around various journalists, and this week one of them agreed to write it. This Is Money is a personal finance website from the same stable as the Daily Mail, and shares many of its stories with the paper.  I persuaded the journalist that the rising price of red diesel is a serious issue for boaters, and he's done a story about it under the headline Fuel Threat To Canal Boaters.

The story features quotes from RBOA vice-chairman Ivor Caplan and my Snecklifter chum Mike Holloway.  I also put him in touch with others, including Sue of No Problem, George Boyle of Alton and John Chard of Stokie, but I guess his deadlines were too tight to feature more of them.   

Nothing in the tabloid world is accurate, but this story's not too bad as these things go.  There's one glaring inaccuracy, though.  'Britain's army of canal boaters'?  Surely we are a navy?

Comments

[Andrew Read]

Red Diesel in the Lords today:
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2006-05-22a.571.0&s=%22red+diesel%22#g571.2

[Sue]

Diesel fuel used to be much, much cheaper than petrol before diesel cars were introduced. The difference in price was the levy of tax on it. With the arrival of diesel cars up went the duty. I can't see that levy coming down especially for boaters users.

I missed the deadline because I was dithering.. I have written a note to myself "Thou shalt not dither on such importent issues"..

[Michael Fisher]

There is no reason why the Chancellor *has* to get rid of red diesel. When the end of derogation is forced on him (ha ha!) he only has to raise the level of duty to the minimum required by Brussels, and this is not the same as that he taxes road fuel. To raise the duty to road levels is just spiteful.

[David Owen-Roberts]

Good link to the money matters page.

There is one point that always seems to be missed in the red diesel argument.

If (and let's face it - it is pretty likely) the derogation is dropped and we have to pay road diesel prices, the government defends it by saying this is what happens in other countries. However what is missed is that in most countries, road diesel is taxed at a much lower rate than petrol, even if petrol tax rates are similar to the UK.

Last time I was in France, road diesel was two-thirds the price of unleaded.

Now if road diesel in this country was taxed at a similar level, the prospect of having to pay road diesel prices wouldn't seem quite so bad.

Perhaps if the Government is so keen on tax harmonisation, they should tax road diesel at a similar rate to our continental neighbours.