Budget 2021: will Tonnage Tax reforms offer a boost to registry rate?

As part of the Budget 2021 announcements delivered by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, a new tonnage tax regime has been unveiled, noted by Mr Sunak as being available to the UK as a consequence of Brexit. 

The new system is hailed as offering the UK a chance for a “simpler” and “fairer” tax system, and described as making the tonnage tax regime more competitive and fairer on UK taxpayers. In what is seen as an attempt to boost the registry rate of UK vessels, under the new system, ships flying the UK’s merchant shipping flag (i.e. the Red Ensign flag: the civil ensign of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) will be rewarded. It is thought that the registry rate of UK vessels has been in decline for around a decade now, so such a move will presumably look to rectify this. 

In advance of the budget announcement, the Treasury also made comment in relation to those vessels deemed to be contributing to the UK’s net zero carbon goals, noting that such vessels (including the likes of cable-laying vessels for wind farms for example) would be able to benefit from the new system.