Sunday, November 30, 2025

I'm going to sum up a couple of stories out of Britain, which were the fallout of the new budget getting debated, and what it has to do with transportation

In this run up to the budget, the Chancellor is trying to suss out the nation's finances, and some intriguing revelations  


As a result, I learned that the govt pays for the rural bus rides, as a social service, and realized that some routes were costing the taxpaying working class, over £100 per rider, per trip, for every passenger 

The once-weekly 15 service between Haslingfield, Cambridgeshire, and Royston, Hertfordshire, cost £48,297 to run in 2024-25, working out at a cost per passenger of £180.

Meanwhile, the 8A service offering one journey a day in each direction between March, Cambridgeshire, and Milton Park and Ride, Cambridge, cost £188,753 to run, with each passenger journey working out at just over £100.



And the govt pays for asylum seekers to use taxis for medical appointments, leading to taxi companies taking advantage of the govt contract, by maxing out the charge through getting the taxis furthest away from the customer and hospital to pick up and drop off. Instead of the 2 mile legit ride, they make it 100. I kid you not. 

a BBC investigation found some people had travelled long distances by taxis or minicabs, with one asylum seeker saying they went on a 250-mile cab journey to a GP, costing the Home Office £600. 

Now the government has confirmed it has spent an average of around £15.8 million per year on transport for asylum seekers.

And the third program costing taxpayers, is Motability, and as it's easy to guess, corruption was found there too.... instead of simply achieving the goal of providing competent vehicles for the disabled, on the govt contract, somehow BMWs and Mercedes were bought, and supplied. 

Motability is the scheme that leases 300,000 cars a year to people with mobility problems

But at the budget hearings, Reeves for the first time publicly identified the program as a problem, saying it “was set up to protect the most vulnerable, not to subsidize the lease on a Mercedes-Benz”.

the scheme was the target of the only significant welfare cuts in the budget as £300m a year of tax breaks were ended and premium brands removed by the scheme operator.


Motability said it hopes that 50% of the vehicles it offers will come from British factories by 2035. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said the changes to the scheme would “support thousands of well-paid, skilled jobs”, before the budget on Wednesday.

The Motability scheme has provided support for disabled drivers for decades, it buys cars from manufacturers and leases them to disabled drivers. Some are adapted to be accessible to wheelchairs.


Officially, premium brands only made up 40,000, or about 5%, of the 800,000 Motability cars. No reason given. 

Disabled people are exempt from VAT and insurance premium tax.  The govt pays it. 

"VAT would add thousands of pounds to costs for disabled people,"  I get it, they can't afford it, but, how is it that the working class ought to pay for it? Socialized medicine I guess How about, instead, the govt organizes the appointments, lease shuttle vans instead, and get the most riders on the fewest trips, and save taxpayers LOADS of money instead? 

Motability Operations, the company that runs the scheme, declined to comment on budget measures, however, it said that premium-brand cars such as BMW and Mercedes will be “removed immediately” to “focus on vehicles that meet disabled people’s needs and represent value and purpose”.

The target of securing half of the cars from British factories could provide a significant boost to the UK car industry. The Japanese manufacturers Nissan and Toyota make cars in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, and Burnaston, Derbyshire, respectively. Mini, owned by BMW, could also benefit, giving the company a strong incentive to build “paused” electric versions at a factory in Oxford.

Motability Operations said that the decision “opens the door to new investment into UK car manufacturing”.

The scheme currently leases about 300,000 vehicles a year. Assuming it remains about the same size, that would mean 150,000 British-built vehicles being leased in 2035 – up from 22,000 last year.  The prospect of more than 100,000 extra sales within the UK would be welcome for the British car industry after years of decline and factory closures.



the Telegraph and Mail newspapers such as picked up the story, and pointed out that claimants were allowed to make higher payments to get premium brands such as Mercedes or BMW, which critics said fueled demand for the scheme among people with conditions that did not visibly impair mobility, such as ADHD or anxiety. 

Yeah, minor mental health issues results in premium govt subsidized cars? That's a big indicator that the whole system is completely corrupted

1 comment:

  1. Conclusion: Do not move to the U.K. While we are reducing costd, the Brits are still wasting more taxpayer pounds.

    ReplyDelete