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Now pay-as-you-go road taxes are in prospect
Last updated at 23:37pm on 30.11.06
Toll rage: Motorists are set to face pay-as-you-drive road toll charges of up to £1.50 a mile under
Motorists are set to face pay-as-you-drive road toll charges of up to £1.50 a mile under 'stealth tax' proposals revealed in a major report commissioned by Gordon Brown.
The report by former BA chief executive Sir Rod Eddington will call for billions of pounds to be raised from Britain's 30 million motorists to provide funds to improve crumbling roads and struggling rail services.
But the proposals are set to prove hugely controversial with motorists in this country who are already face among the highest charges in terms of tax, petrol and speeding fines.
Published in advance of next week's Pre-Budget statement, Sir Rod's report is set to provide the blueprint for Chancellor Gordon Brown's transport policy as Prime Minister.
The proposals will also fuel controversy over increasing intrusion into citizens' privacy with cars to be fitted with electronic black boxes which will track their every movement either by satellite or roadside beacon.
Motorists be charged by the mile, with prices rising at times of peak congestion and lower when traffic is light. Drivers will receive an itemised bill each month setting out where they drove and how much it cost.
The most polluting cars, including 4x4s, are set to be charged the most.
The proposals have also sparked rows about how the cash raised will be used, with critics fearing that instead of being used to cut congestion, the money will become yet another Government cash-raising 'stealth tax'.
Ministers have already laid the ground for road-pricing by including legislation for pilot schemes in the Queen's Speech although the Treasury isacutely sensitive to the charge that it is gearing up for yet another tax grab.
Undert the Queens' Speech plans, regional road-pricing trials will start in five years.
The aim is to have a national jam-busting scheme in place by the middle of the next decade with drivers paying up to £1.50 a mile to use the busiest and most congested roads at peak time.
The Transport Department has declined to rule out charging 'gas-guzzlers' more than lower polluting vehicles.
This suggests a shift in policy towards more environmentally-friendly or 'green' measures.
Originally ministers insisted that pay-as-you-drive charges would replace road tax and petrol duty, and would be 'revenue neutral'.
But, driven by the new 'green' agenda, that commitment appears to have been abandoned.
Sir Rod's report will also call for greater spending on roads and on the railways - but with funds concentrated on easing bottlenecks rather than on major projects.
On the railways he believes that lengthening trains and platforms would be a more practical way to cope with congestion - particularly on busy commuter services in the South East of England.
For this reason, he is expected to reject the idea of a high speed North-South rail link, arguing that it is more cost effective for road and rail networks to be used more efficiently.
He will also call for a streamlining and shake up of the over-complex planning regime that hinders investment in big infrastructure projects.
But the former BA boss will, perhaps not surprisingly, back expansion of aviation, a move which will infuriate campaigners who oppose more airports and flights.
Sir Rod will argue that cutting congestion is essential to Britain's economic prosperity and that road pricing or 'demand management' schemes are more effective that costly multi-billion pound prestige schemes.
Ministers are also anxious to avoid the embarrassment of repeating ambitious promises of a fully 'integrated transport system' which has still yet to materialise. That was replaced six years ago by a 10-year plan, which itself was quietly pared back after Railtrack's collapse.
Tories say the need is for quick fixes now to go alongside longer term planning.
Last night the Conservatives accused the Government of publishing yet another report while failing to get to grips with Britain's 'urgent' transport problems.
Ahead of the Eddington Report , the Tories released their own strategy document setting out their priorities for the system.
The party called for a programme of rapid action to ease bottlenecks in the system, along with major longer-term projects to make a lasting difference to the traffic infrastructure.
And it said a much stronger green dimension and a more integrated approach to transport planning were needed.
The Conservative Strategy Document - entitled Getting Around: Britain's Great Frustration - sets out an initial foundation for the policies expected in the party's next election manifesto.
Shadow transport secretary Chris Grayling said: "The Government's latest report on transport - the Eddington Report - is the eighth major document they have produced on transport, and yet virtually all the improvements they promised in their 10-year plan for transport have been cancelled or kicked into the long grass."
He acknowledged that road pricing and tolling were likely to play an increased role in the strategy of any future Government, but added: "We certainly would not want to see premature moves to an untested national scheme. We believe that congestion charging and road pricing should be used to generate additional transport capacity rather than to price people off the roads altogether."
Mr Grayling noted: "The Government has clearly failed to follow through on its stated aim of improving our transport system - and for most people travel has become more difficult in the past 10 years.
"We have trains that are getting more and more overcrowded and roads that are getting more and more congested."
On the Eddington recommendations, environmental group Transport 2000 said: "We will support Eddington on road pricing, but only if revenues go back into public transport and other measures to give people real choice. We would oppose funding going towards big new roads programmes."
Road pricing was first floated by former Transport Secretary Alistair Darling - now Trade and Industry Secretary but tipped to be Chancellor under a Brown premiership - whose mantra in support of the policy was "doing nothing is not an option."
Mr Brown was also vociferous backer of Sir Nicholas Stern's 'green' recommendations for action on global warming.
Reader views (13)
At present I use my car for voluntary work in support of a Hospice. Public transport is not conveniently available to be a viable alternative, so my voluntary work may well have to cease, something I would regret greatly. I rather suspect the Government have no intention of improving public transport before introducing yet another money-grabbing scheme and no proposals for exemptions.
- James Elliott, Eastbourne UK
Typical - pitch it at 1.50 a mile. So when it is unveiled at only 50p a mile the govt will have listened and a so called sensible compromise will have been reached.
To add to Andrew's comment - a typical commute of 30 miles each way will cost a fortune.
Death by stealth taxes.
- Angus, USA
Hmm, £1.50 a mile, supposing I use an average route to work We'll assume I'll have to pay £1 a mile.
Right I drive 32 miles a day to and from work, that's £32 a day, £160 a week or £640 a month.
I earn in the region of £30,000 a year, that payment would be more than a third of my take home pay - I can't afford that, so I will be forced to either find another job or get on a smelly overcrowded train that takes two hours longer to get me to work.
Perhaps the government should consider improving public transport before turning us all into paupers, but they wont, but then again this is the government that messed up all our pension funds by raiding them because they can't budget properly. Because of them I'm going to have to work until I'm 68 because of Gordon Brown -thanks for that, think about me when you've retired on the nice fat parliamentary pension you all voted for yourselves while I'm scratching round to make ends meet Gordon.
And another thing if this government wants to raise a few quid to invest in public transport first perhaps they could think about withdrawing troops from Iraq and Afghanistanm, where we spend in the region on£1million for every bomb we drop - we wouldn't be short of a few quid then would we?
I'm all for safeguarding the environment and redcing emissions but surely they could come up with something a bit less damaging to EVERYONE who owns a car and lives more than 5 miles from their workplace.
- Andrew, Harlow
Why are we constantly hit in the pocket? There will come a time when no one will be able to afford to get to work, train fares are ridiculously high and the service is atrocious, the same goes for the tube, now car drivers will be penalised (again) – what exactly does my road tax pay for?
- Bunny, Bishop's Stortford
But I hope our commissars will be able to drive their government Jaguars without worry about the extra charge.
- R M, London, UK
So the Chair of the Transport and Environment Committee is saying providing you can pay you can continue polluting!!! If everybody stumps up you haven't achieved anything and then you push up the tolls and end up making the road system the exclusive preserve of the wealthy.
As regards climate change until somebody stops the US's, China's, etc. mass pollution of the Earth's atmosphere what ever we do here won't make a blind bit of difference.
- Mark, Sunny South East London
I think Tony and Gordon should go around and tap on everyone's windscreen and ask them politely if they would mind not making so many journeys - I'm sure everyone will respond where they can.
And where I live in the country my 'air' seems to be clean enough so I don't understand why everyone bangs on about pollution all the time.
Trains are ghastly, my 4 wheel drive is much more comfortable. This is nothing but a back door consumption tax - I mean it's not the same as those who drink more G&Ts obviously have to pay more than those don't. The road is already there, so it should be free, especially to those who make more of a contribution by using more fuel
- Alfie, London, UK
I would like to bet that no improvements will be made to alternative means of transport. This is just another thinly disguised method of levying tax.
- Tiggr, Twickenham UK
Sir Rod Eddington's variable road pricing to tackle congestion and air pollution together - climate change (CO2) and air quality (NO2 and particulates) - is much fairer than blunt instruments like the London Congestion Charge. Sir Nicholas Stern says that there can be considerable cost savings if both objectives are met together and Singapore has shown it can work cheaply, quickly and effectively. With the polluter pays principle, large vehicles driven more often will pay most.
Simon Birkett
Chair
Transport and Environment Committee
The Knightsbridge Association
- Simon Birkett, Knightsbridge, London
If the various councils and governments had not installed so many "traffic calming" measures and bus lanes then there would be less congestion. Then we would not have to be mugged through the wallet for making essential journeys to work which provides this country with an economy.
The sooner any government realises that their holy grail of getting everyone to travel on expensive and unreliable public transport will never happen and that they need to think outside of their current box in order to resolve the situation of their own making, the better the country will be.
- Graham, Reading, England
Another example of the "animal farm" mentality of this arrogant and controlling government and how they see the people of this country as nothing more than baying sheep to be controlled and exploited for their profit and advantage.
Will the "black boxes" to be fitted to "all" cars be also fitted to the governments cars?
- Mike, London
Another ruse to soak more taxes out of the great British public. I wonder at what kind of mileage level the road pricing scheme will be 'revenue neutral', as they will surely have to do away with either fuel duty or road tax ....... as if. I also look forward to improved public transport so that I can get a bus to the station to catch the 6.03 every morning ...... currently the first bus is just after 8.00 which is not a lot of use when you start work at 07.00!
- Paul, London
Drivers already pay £50 billion a year in taxes, yet the Government spends almost nothing on roads. Now they want to tax us even more, with a lot of that new tax being wasted on the cost of collection and enforcement.
We don't want more taxes, we want better roads.
- National Alliance Against Tolls, Britain
