Now lawn mowers are to be taxed!

Environment minister Andrea Leadsome is expected to announce that in spite of Brexit, Britain will adopt a Brussels directive which will bring lawn mowers within the scope of vehicle tax and carbon emission regulations.

The directive, which is due to come into force in October, will include all "internal combustion engined garden machines" including mowers, ride-on garden tractors and self-powered barrows.

"We can no longer ignore the level of carbon monoxide emissions caused by the millions of petrol-driven garden machines, regardless of the small size of their engines," a spokeswoman for the Department of the Environment said today.

"Many of them have two-stroke engines which run on a mixture of petrol and oil, and recent investigations have shown that these cause carbon emissions at least 20 per cent higher than four stroke models that run on petrol alone."

The spokeswoman said that although Britain will no longer be subject to EU  directives after Brexit, ministers saw merit in incorporating the measure into UK regulations on emissions and vehicle taxation.

It is understood that the DVLA will announce interim tax rates for garden machines later this year and that these will be based on the cubic capacity of engines with a surcharge for two-stroke models. Rates are expected to be in the range of between £15 and £30 per year.

The EU directive gives engine manufacturers until 2020 to assess and submit for approval the emission levels of their products and once these have been verified by officials it is expected that annual tests similar to MoT tests for road vehicles will be introduced and the rate of annual tax confirmed.

A spokesman for the UK Garden Machinery Manufacturers' Association today condemned the measure as "a blatant tax grab hitting people's enjoyment of their gardens and allotments."

"Carbon emissions from lawnmowers are miniscule compared to those of cars, lorries and buses, and as well as piling the cost of tax and annual testing onto gardeners and allotment holders, manufacturers' will face a huge increase in their costs at the worst possible time for the industry," he said.



Whatever will they tax next? The square footage of our lawns? Honestly, you couldn't make it up.

You could always move abroad in protest but the grass isn't always greener.

This sounds like April Fool to me