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June 20th, 2008
One Third Of UK Businesses To Make Redundancies If Fuel hits £2 A Litre

Lex, the UK’s largest vehicle leasing company today revealed that over a third (34%) of Financial Directors, Controllers and Chief Financial Officers surveyed expect redundancies within their organisations if the fuel price hits £2 a litre, this according to a Lex/YouGov commissioned survey.

In the past month, diesel prices have risen by their highest margin this century and are now almost 14 pence per litre more expensive than petrol. High oil prices, breaking through the $125 mark, have also fuelled a near-record rise in petrol prices*.

Nationally, unleaded prices have risen to a record average price of 116.9ppl nationally in the past month. Diesel prices have risen to a record average of 130.3ppl*.

As a parallel to rising fuel costs, the survey also revealed a level of dissatisfaction from Financial Directors of UK businesses with the timescales that the Government has attached to the Budget’s recent emissions based taxation changes. With the changes due to take affect in April, 2009, almost a third (32%) felt that they had received adequate notice from the Government to implement the necessary changes to their business vehicles.

53% of those surveyed also stated that implementing changes brought about by the new pieces of Government legislation, be it as a result of the corporation tax/capital allowances, CO2 based vehicle taxation or the corporate manslaughter act, had placed a strain on their business.

Commenting on the findings, Lex MD Jon Walden said: “The Lex/YouGov survey firmly illustrates the pressure that UK businesses are feeling as a result of rising fuel costs, and in particular the price of diesel. As a company that specialises in vehicle leasing for UK businesses, Lex has established the ‘Lex Momentum’ consultancy arm which is providing strategic assistance to businesses in these challenging times on reducing costs and advice on low-emitting vehicles.”

Other key results from the Lex/YouGov survey

• More than half (56%) did not feel they had received adequate notice from the Government for implementing the new changes in the laws on Corporation tax/capital allowances (to be introduced in April 2009), Changes in CO2 based vehicle taxation, or Duty of Care/corporate manslaughter.

• 40% of respondents are not familiar with forthcoming changes to corporation tax and capital allowances

• 42% of businesses surveyed with company cars said they had no plans to make vehicles more environmentally friendly over the next six months

• 57% of respondents did not think that making their fleet more environmentally friendly would attract new business

• Only 47% of respondents reported that their company had policies or procedures in place to ensure it met its ‘duty of care’ responsibilities to employees in light of the corporate manslaughter act

Note to editors

To receive a copy of the Lex/YouGov report, please call contact James Lambert, Head of PR at Lex on (+44) 7826 875371 or email james.lambert@lex.co.uk

This Key finding report is based on the results from the Lex ‘Corporate Manslaughter’ survey. Fieldwork was undertaken between 14th and 19th May 2008.

The sample was comprised of 229 Financial Directors, Controllers and Chief Financial Officers from medium (50-249 employees) and large (250+) sized businesses. Respondents were identified from a panel screening exercise carried out in February 2008. Pre-selected respondents were invited to take part in the survey via email.

* AA.com figures on fuel(May/June, 2008)