2025 Budget a Lost Opportunity say the National Motorcyclists Council

The Chancellor could have used the budget to recognise and support the role of motorcycling in the future of transport, but she slammed the brakes on instead

The UK Government budget, delivered yesterday (Wednesday 26th November) by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, was an opportunity to move fiscal levers to recognise the role of motorcycling in the future of transport and to also bring to life the Government’s stated aim to encourage the use of zero emission motorcycles. In the end what was delivered was mixed bag for motorcycling, which does neither.

On the one hand electric motorcycles will be exempt from proposals for ‘eVED’ planned for 2028, which the National Motorcyclists Council (NMC) welcomes. But on the other hand, there was no announcement to extend the current electric motorcycle ‘plug in grant’. With the current grant due to expire in April 2026, this will deliver a hammer blow to an electric motorcycle market which has already seen further falls in new registrations over the last year. The gradual whittling away of grant support since 2022 has directly impacted what was once a promising marketplace, with the ‘ePTW’ market going into decline from the point that the original grant support was reduced.

On Vehicle Excise Duty for other vehicles, the Chancellor announced that motorcycle VED rates are planned to increase in line with RPI alongside other vehicles. Given the positive impact of motorcycling on congestion and its role in low polluting personal urban mobility, this is disappointing. The Government should be using this opportunity to reduce or exempt smaller capacity motorcycle VED and to also freeze rates for larger capacity bikes.

The budget reconfirmed investment in fixing potholes, but despite previous announcements, potholes and the general state of the roads remain an urgent problem. With National Pothole Day taking place in January, the NMC urges the Government to hold local authorities to account and require them to demonstrate that the additional funding they receive is spent properly on permanent repairs, not cheap patch fixes.

NMC Executive Director Craig Carey-Clinch said: “Given that the Chancellor significantly increased her fiscal headroom in the Budget, she could have done much more to support motorcycling as part of the future of Transport. Instead, we have a budget of missed opportunities. Far from ‘accelerating’ the uptake of zero emission motorcycles, the net effect of removing the Motorcycle Plug in Grant next April will simply slam the brakes on an already struggling sector.

“Indeed, to add insult to injury, the Budget increases the threshold for the VED Expensive Car Supplement to £50,000, while leaving the maximum retail price threshold for an electric motorcycle to be eligible for the grant at £10,000 for the remaining period of the grant. This, as MCIA also points out, no longer affects real-world Electric motorcycle pricing.

“The NMC is calling for the original grant levels to be reinstated for motorcycles, with a return of support for e-mopeds being particularly important given the rise in the use of illegally used high-powered eBikes in the gig economy since the electric moped grant was abolished. We also feel that this type of grant framework needs to be more flexible and ‘future-proofed’. Forthcoming developments of other propulsion technologies such as e-Fuelled or hydrogen powered motorcycles need Government encouragement, by also being eligible for grant support as they enter the marketplace – as a further way of encouraging non fossil-fuelled developments in the motorcycle world.

“For far too long, Vehicle Excise Duty has been regarded as a blunt tax raising tool which no longer works for motorcycles. This is because VED rates for pre 2017 cars with CO2 emissions of under 110g/km are set at a lower rate than for sub 150cc motorcycles – despite various studies showing that this sector has average CO2 levels of between 70-90g/km. We call on the Treasury to correct this anomaly and zero rate sub 150cc motorcycles and freeze VED rates for other classes. This would properly recognise the positive environmental contribution that all types of motorcycle offer.”

Paul Morgan CBE, the BMF’s Government Relations Executive said:

“ Yesterday’s budget statement was a missed opportunity by the Government to recognise the important role of motorcycling in the future of transport for the United Kingdom. Where was the vision, policy pathway and related incentives to encourage and support motorcycling as an accessible, affordable, cleaner and greener transport option than most other powered modes of transport?

We can only hope that the the £7 billion motorcycling sector will get the recognition it deserves in the forthcoming policies to be set out by the Government’s as part of its Integrated National Transport and Road Safety strategies due to be published at the end of this year.

To fully deliver on the positive contribution motorcycling has to offer in respect of lower congestion, greater energy efficiency, significantly reduced levels of air pollution, the more efficient use of road space, and accessible personal urban mobility, the BMF calls on the Government to fully integrate motorcycling into the mainstream of its future UK transport policy.

To not do so, will be a lost opportunity for the UK and for future generations of road users, who are looking to the Government to promote sustainable and greener transport solutions both now and for the future. Motorcycling has an extremely important role to play in achieving the Government’s vision of a truly integrated, national transport solution.”

Link to NMC article here

Written by Craig Carey-Clinch

Top image courtesy of

More information about the National Motorcyclists Council and its members can be found here

*According to the most recent (2021) UK greenhouse-gas “conversion factors” dataset (which uses real-world fuel consumption), bikes “up to 125 cc” — the category most comparable to mopeds or small motorcycles — have an average of ≈ 85 g CO₂ per km.