One in five new cars are bought through Motability – has it gone too far?

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Motability is now the largest fleet car operator in Europe and costs the taxpayer £2.8bn. Peter Stanford’s mother benefited from the tax-break scheme in the 1980s and it changed her life – but, he asks, can we really afford it when there isn’t enough money to go around?

M

y mum had a series of Motability cars over the years when I was growing up in Liverpool in the 1980s and 1990s. All were bottom-of-the-range Ford Escorts, all were blue, and all were driven by my dad so she could get out and about as a mother, homemaker and wheelchair-user with multiple sclerosis.