‘More mean tax than green tax'

More than 115,000 motorists across Greater Manchester will be hit by the controversial shake-up of car tax, the Government has admitted.

Chancellor Alistair Darling plans to increase the cost of taxing the most polluting vehicles. The changes will apply to cars that were bought as long as seven years ago.

Figures released in Parliament show that between 2001 and 2006, 115,006 motorists in Greater Manchester registered vehicles that would be classed as “gas guzzlers”.

If the shake-up goes ahead, owners will all be hit with an inflation-busting rise when buying their 2009 tax disc.

The Government is under pressure to ditch the plans from many of its own backbenchers who believe it is an unfair squeeze during the economic downturn.

Edmund Kind, President of the AA, said: “It is intrinsically unfair and unusual to introduce a new system of taxation that applies to families who have already purchased their vehicles and are unable to sell them.

“This is not sending out a green signal but a mean signal.”

A Treasury spokesman said the new plans would encourage people to use more environmentally friendly cars as well as save 1.3m tonnes of CO2 by 2020.

Any decision to change the current plans is likely to be made in next month’s pre-Budget report.

Under the new system coming into effect next year, there will be 13 bands ranging from A to M based on carbon emissions with prices varying from zero to £455 by 2010.