40p a mile? So outdated!

I don't know who decides these things or how they decide them, but 40p a mile for business car travel seems pitifully low these days.

The cost of motoring has risen in recent years and the cost of fuel has rocketed in the last few months. You can buy a litre of unleaded for only just less than £1.30 these days.

As Bill Bob said in April 2010 on the forum Piston Heads Gassing Station:
"When petrol was 55p a litre I was getting 40p a mile expenses to use my car on company business. Guess what I'm getting now!! Yes it's still 40p. How can that be fair? ... It seems this government want the penny, the bun and the oven it was made in."

I don't know how long the 40p a mile has been the maximum amount payable for motoring expenses, but these days it seems woefully inadequate.