Rachel Reeves is hitting drivers with new automotive tax bands for highway customers in April 2026.

Rachel Reeves has issued new automotive tax bands to drivers (Picture: Getty)
Sure highway customers can pay £35 to get behind the wheel and use the roads this 12 months, after tax prices carried out by Rachel Reeves. The Labour Chancellor has introduced tax hikes on highway customers, with annual inflationary will increase affecting Car Excise Responsibility (VED) costs.
Petrol, diesel and electrical automotive house owners have all been hit with greater charges, which means motorists have to dip into their wallets for further money to retain their freedom to drive. Amongst these impacted by the brand new VED automotive tax bands are automobiles first registered between 2001 and 2017.
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New automotive tax bands got here into impact from 1 April (Picture: Getty)
House owners of those fashions are positioned into certainly one of 13 automotive tax bands, with charges rising relying on general automobile emissions. Nonetheless, low-emission fashions and electrical vehicles are amongst these not affected by hefty will increase, with payments not rising.
Autos falling into Band C, vehicles emitting between 111 and 120g/km of CO2, can pay £35 in VED over the 2026/27 tax 12 months. It’s the identical cost motorists paid over the 2024/25 and 2025/26 tax years in a lift to house owners.
Often, vehicles falling into this class embody a number of the best petrol and diesel fashions and hybrid vehicles. VED is cheaper for low-emission fashions because the decrease charges act as a serious incentive for highway customers to modify to cleaner fashions.
Compared, highly-polluting fashions are paying a whole bunch to make use of the roads, with vehicles emitting over 255g/km of CO2 charged £790 to get behind the wheel. Motorists will pay VED prices yearly, or slice up the annual invoice right into a sequence of smaller instalments.
Drivers will often obtain a current automobile tax reminder or ‘final likelihood’ warning letter from the DVLA to remind highway customers when their invoice is due.
Motorists can tax their automobile on-line in only a matter of minutes, or pay the cost in particular person on the Submit Workplace.
HMRC mentioned: “As introduced at Finances 2025, the Authorities will introduce laws in Finance Invoice 2025-26 to uprate Car Excise Responsibility charges for vehicles, vans and bikes consistent with the Retail Worth Index (RPI) for 2026 to 2027. It will take impact from 1 April 2026.”
















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