Where is the support for fleets and small businesses?

BUDGET 2025: Chancellor delivers higher costs and new EV taxes, but little support for the fleets that keep Britain moving, says Corpay’s Paul Holland

The Autumn Budget has landed and it is every bit as tough as expected. Higher taxes, reduced growth forecasts and a new mileage tax for electric vehicles all point in the same direction. Costs are rising again and the businesses keeping the country moving are being asked to absorb even more pressure.

Nothing announced today makes life easier for fleets or small businesses. Fuel duty relief is still absent, with only a five-month freeze before staged increases begin from 2026. Incentives for cleaner alternatives such as Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) are missing.

Support to help small firms electrify is nowhere to be seen. Instead, the government has confirmed a new EV mileage tax from 2028, charging 3 pence per mile for battery electric vehicles and 1.5 pence per mile for plug in hybrids. This is completely the wrong move at the wrong moment. If you increase the cost of running an EV, people will simply delay switching.

The Budget also highlights a wider problem: rising taxes across the board. The freeze on income tax thresholds has been extended to 2031, which means higher personal tax bills. That does not just hit households. It pushes up wage expectations and operating costs for every business that relies on drivers, technicians and frontline staff.

We must also recognise that lower economic growth has consequences for fleets. Every fraction of a percentage lost means less investment, less confidence and fewer businesses able to modernise their vehicles. Yet the Budget offers no new measures to help commercial operators upgrade vans, adopt cleaner fuels or manage rising energy costs.

Without targeted support, EV vans will remain impractical for many small firms. The second-hand EV market will stay weak. Greener fuels such as HVO will continue to be a nonstarter because they are taxed the same as diesel. And now EV taxation risks slowing progress even further. These are practical issues that government has to confront if it wants a cleaner and more productive transport system.

The government says it wants growth. Growth comes from giving businesses the space and confidence to invest. Fleets and small businesses needed support. Instead, they received higher costs and higher uncertainty.

Paul Holland is managing director for UK/ANZ Fleet at Corpay, including the UK brand Allstar