Nissan MD: Extend scrap
September 14th, 2009 by Richard Aucock
NISSAN UK managing director Paul Wilcox has added his name to the list calling for a scrap extension.
Speaking exclusively to Car Dealer Magazine, the MD hit out at the Government for the lack of information on the end of the scheme.
He says Nissan estimates the scheme will end by mid to late November – and dealers are once again in limbo over what happens next.
‘There’s been a complete lack of clarity about what happens when it ends,’ Wilcox told us.
‘When they launched the scheme they said nothing about how they would manage the tail off of the program. There’s been radio silence ever since; not a thing. And that is a disappointment.
‘The information coming out of the Government is sketchy. We were supposed to get bi-monthly updates on the scheme and we’re not even getting those.’
Wilcox says that as the scheme is effectively making the Government money from the VAT sales it should be extended.
And he points out that most owners of 10-year-old cars would never normally buy new – in fact just 2 per cent of sales used to be to owners of such cars – so these sales, and VAT receipts, are a bonus.
‘There was a lot said about this huge £300m of “support” for the industry, but we can now see that the Government is making money out of it on the VAT,’ said Wilcox.
‘We will lobby hard, alongside the SMMT, for a continuance, because from a Government perspective, scrappage is not a costly exercise.
‘Scrappage should be a scheme that runs until we see the market picking up again. The Government can simply allocate another portion of funds – another £200-£300m – and then let it run for another six months.’
Wilcox adds that it is vital the industry is supported – purely to keep British workers in jobs.
‘I know there’s a lot of noise about the fact that a lot of the cars being sold are not built in the UK, but they are sold here,’ said Wilcox.
‘There are thousands and thousands of people working in dealers – we know we have approaching 5000 people working in our dealers – and this has stopped our network from having to reduce their head count.
‘That’s a significant number of people employed by this industry and the scrappage scheme, at no cost to the Government, is supporting it and keeping people in work.
‘It’s a job saver – and at no cost to the Government.’
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Tags: government, new car scrap, Nissan, scrappage
September 18th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Paul Wilcox is quite correct – this scheme has been of minimal cost to the government as the average amount of VAT, even on the lower priced cars, is actually more than the £870 (ex vat) that the government is chipping in. Does the government think we are stupid?!