2015 budget & the world of motoring

• Petrol duty frozen for fifth year 
• 0.5p-a-litre Sept increase scrapped 
• Little change in company car tax 
• Severn toll crossing reduced
• 5p cheaper fuel in rural areas
• Tax-exempt classic cars from 1976 
• £100m fund for autonomous cars

The Chancellor George Osborne announced the abolition of planned fuel duty increases in the 2015 Budget, claiming the accumulated tax freezes would save Britain's 30 million motorists £10 every time they filled up at the pumps.

It's a typically oblique political claim; cutting a planned 0.5p-a-litre increase will not save a tenner for any motorist filling a typical fuel tank of, say, 50 to 60 litres. Rather, he's referring to the planned five-year freeze on the fuel duty escalator, in real terms. But then this was very much a Budget of posturing and smoke and mirrors, as the May elections loom large.

Drivers living in rural areas may benefit from 5p-a-litre cuts, as a new countryside tax relief kicks in on 1 April 2015, the Budget also revealed today.

And Osborne announced further investment into autonomous cars and revealed Government plans to reduce the Severn road crossing toll from 2018, when it passes into public ownership.

Read on for a full analysis with carmagazine.co.uk