The vehicle rental and leasing industry contributes around £49B per year to the UK economy, supports over 465,000 jobs and generates £7.6B in taxation annually.
Commissioned by the BVRLA from respected research organisation Oxford Economics, the study provides some robust, independent data on the size, scope and importance of the vehicle rental and leasing industry.
The £49B takes account of the operations of the industry itself, the UK-made vehicles and engines it purchases, the activity of UK dealerships and its impact on the used car market.
The industry employs 52,700 people directly and contributes £23.9B from rental and leasing activities. This contribution is higher than that seen in many other sectors because of the reliance on rapidly depreciating capital goods.
Rental and leasing companies spent an estimated £30B on buying over 1.8million vehicles in 2017, which includes £5.4B spent on 304,000 UK-assembled cars, vans and trucks. This represents 17% of all vehicles assembled in the UK and means that they were responsible for 83% of these vehicles sold domestically. The industry also purchased 418,900 vehicles with UK-made engines.
By purchasing so many UK-made vehicles and engines, the rental and leasing sector supports an estimated 78,000 jobs at major manufacturing plants in Ellesmere Port, Sunderland, Oxford, Swindon, Bridgend and Dagenham, as well as the extended supply chain.