Lower Petrol Prices gets the People’s Vote!
Don’t worry – there’s not long to go. The election that never seems to end will be over by next Friday… or will it?
On the morning after the night before, you might imagine that you won’t have to hear from that seemingly endless parade of political leaders anymore but, not only could the result be far from clear cut meaning further horse-trading between political parties over a potential coalition agreement, policies will need to clarified. For, as we all know, the election campaign has been full of promises that have been far from clear.
Politicians looking to wise-up to what the people really want could do worse than heed new research from Scottish Friendly. It reveals one in four adults in the UK, nearly 13 million potential voters, want the next Government to enforce lower oil prices, saying that adopting such a policy would have a significantly positive impact on their personal levels of disposable income.[1]
Scottish Friendly asked adults across the UK to identify those policies they felt would have the most positive impact on their levels of disposable income and which they would like to see established by the next Government following the General Election.
The most popular policy that people would like to see introduced was the lowering of direct taxes, such as income tax, national insurance and council tax. Cuts to indirect taxes such as VAT was second favourite among potential voters, followed by enforcing lower petrol prices and raising cash benefits in joint third position.
The top five most popular income-enhancing policies that UK adults would like to see introduced following the General Election were:
| Policy | Popularity | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lowering direct taxes, income tax, national insurance contributions | 37 per cent |
| 2 | Lowering indirect taxes (e.g. VAT) | 35 per cent |
| 3 | Enforcing lower petrol prices | 26 per cent |
| 3= | Raising cash benefits (e.g. state pension) | 26 per cent |
| 5 | Raising the personal tax allowance (e.g. tax free saving) | 22 per cent |
From the school run to the daily commute and those that rely on their cars for work, Britain is a nation that places a great reliance on petrol. The costs associated with maintaining a car is clearly important to British voters and is something that the next Government will need to bear in mind should petrol prices start to rise back to previous levels.
Reference:
- Research was commissioned by Scottish Friendly and conducted by Reddot research in April, 2015. Over 2,000 adults, representing a cross-section of the UK, were asked to identify the top three policies that would most likely enhance their level of personal disposable income and that they would like to see implemented following the General Election.