MOT Minister: Discounting influenced freeze

29 October 2013  

NEW Roads Minister Robert Goodwill has voiced his support for discounting the MOT fee and indicated that the number of garages that reduce the test fee influenced his decision to freeze the maximum charge until 2015.

Speaking at the RMI’s annual dinner he said: “Some of the decisions taken to reduce the cost of motoring this week have not been popular such as freezing the MOT fee.”

He added: “But I know that many of you discount the fee. In fact only 12m of the vehicles on the road paid the full fee. Discounting is a very good way of getting people through your doors.”

Mr Goodwill concluded by saying that he will fight ‘tooth and nail’ to prevent European proposals that threaten to split testing stations from repair garages. He also said that he will resist any measures to introduce so-called ‘caravan MOTs’.