Lombard covers extra VED charge

LOMBARD Vehicle Management is covering extra VED charges levelled on customers’ vehicles after the charges were increased in the Budget.

Gordon Brown raised the F band charges by £25 a year, and introduced a £210 G category for vehicles emitting higher amounts of CO2 – £45 more than the previous top band.

Although targeted at SUVs, many popular fleet cars are affected, particularly automatics and petrol cars. Lombard says this could cost fleets almost £4 million in extra revenue during 2006.

Lombard head of sales Edward Pigg said: ‘One of the key selling points of contract hire is predictability of costs. We try to reduce the variables to a minimum by, for instance, keeping damage charges low, and we are also committed to being a genuine partner for our customers. We are removing this additional financial burden for existing customers.’