Van owners with vehicles over eight rather than over ten years old will now be able to benefit from the government’s vehicle scrappage initiative under changes announced by business secretary, Peter (Lord of Spin) Mandelson. What’s more, Whitehall is pumping another £100m into the scheme, allowing it to provide funding for an extra 100,000 vehicles and bringing the total budget to £400m.
The programme will come to an end in February 2010, or when the funding runs out; whichever is the sooner. Trade in a scrap vehicle against a new one and you can benefit from a £2,000 grant; half from the government, half from the motor industry.
“We’re delighted with the changes that are being made,” says Ford director of commercial vehicles, Steve Kimber. “We welcome anything that will help stimulate the van market and the way in which scrappage is being extended should bring more people into Ford dealerships.”
“We still fully support the scheme and the changes should bring more customers into the frame,” says a Citroën spokesman.
However some light commercial manufacturers believe that the changes have not gone far enough. “The trouble is that somebody running an eight-year-old van is unlikely to be in the market for a new one, even with a grant,” says a Mercedes-Benz spokesman. “He’s more likely to buy a second-hand light commercial.”
“Moving from ten to eight years won’t make a blind bit of difference,” says a senior van industry executive, who asked not to be named. “Reduce it to six years and it might have more of an impact.”
Car owners are getting a further boost from scrappage, with the age qualification changed by six months to extend the benefits to cars first registered on or before 29 February 2000 (V registration).
