IAN Richardson, fleet manager of English Nature, said he would not be changing his buying pattern for his 100 cars and 100 4x4 vehicles in the wake of price cut claims. 'We bought last year and we keep vehicles for five to seven years so we won't be changing our buying,' he said.

But Dug Brown, business executive of Somerfield, said he had stopped buying cars at the moment in anticipating of possible price cuts, with future residual values in mind, and uncertainty over the March 21 Budget. He will start buying for his 1,600 strong fleet again in April when more is known about the future shape of company car taxation.

Di Rees, business services manager for Leo Pharmaceuticals, said: ' The company will continue to buy cars as and when they need replacing. It could be months before anything happens with price reduction and in that time there will be more depreciation on existing vehicles.

Len Clayton, managing director of Interleasing, said some people were waiting to buy mainly because they were waiting to see if there will be price reductions. Motorpoint, of Derby, which sells imports direct said it already had more than 150 orders for W registration vehicles. Toll House Toyota, Horsham, which sells 4,000 vehicles a year to fleets claims W-plate sales are ahead of forecasts with fleet sales manager Chris Forsyth saying: 'We have been very buoyant for a long time and have not really found any drop off or people postponing buying.'