Following a Government decision to bail out
the
car manufacturing industry by GBP 2.3 billion,
car companies
Ford and
Vauxhall have decided to increase the price of their
vehicles by 5 per cent.
Ford announced price increases of 5.2 per cent on
Ford Focus, whilst Vauxhall are set to announce similar
increases across their range. The decisions were instantly
criticised. John Thurso, Lib Dem business spokesman, reportedly
commented: As I understand it, the inability to
sell cars is the problem. I would have thought the last thing
to do in difficult trading conditions was to put prices
up.
Research director at Taxpayers Alliance, Matthew Sinclair, was
reported in the news making an extremely salient point: If
the Government wants to help
car makers, it can do so in a way that helps ordinary
motorists by cutting
road tax and allowing ordinary people the chance to help
manufacturers the old-fashioned way, by buying
their cars .
A Vauxhall spokesman was reported as blaming
currency fluctuations, commenting: We are buying in
euros and selling in sterling, which is a huge challenge
because the pound/euro relationship has gone wonky. We have to keep
this business afloat and we have to make some
money .
