MPs have urged the Government to reconsider its approach to road pricing and remove congestion charging as a condition to Transport Innovation Fund bids.
The transport select committee’s latest report said the Government must improve the way it justified taxes on motorists in order to rebuild public trust.
It claimed the way the Government handled a phased set of increases to vehicle excise duty was so bad it had ‘tarnished the image of environmental taxes’.
The Taxes and charges on road-users report argued that access to TIF funding should no longer be tied to road-pricing projects, and government should instead look to develop voluntary charging schemes where fuel duty could be traded for per-mile charges.
The committee said this could facilitate complementary systems, such as pay-as-you-drive insurance, which could ‘build a new consensus for how to curb congestion’. The MPs pointed towards the failed Greater Manchester TIF bid – which was rejected by a public referendum at a rate of 79% against – as proof that the public would not vote in favour of additional charges.
Professor Stephen Glaister, of the RAC Foundation, praised the report, saying the committee had recognised the simple problem of ‘too many vehicles on too little road space’, and supported calls for a voluntary scheme.
‘But for any radical policy to be successful, public trust in the politicians introducing it is essential – and that trust is currently lacking,’ he said.
‘It might be restored if the Department for Transport had a bigger part to play in setting charges as part of a coherent roads strategy, rather than it being left to the Treasury to tax motorists with the apparent sole intention of shoring up the nation’s ailing finances.’
Launching the report, committee chairman, Louise Ellman, said: ‘Stronger linkage between Treasury policy and transport ministry policy is essential if the Government is to send clearer signals to motorists about congestion and carbon emissions. Reform will, however, elude any government until the public are given comprehensive information detailing how much money is raised through this route, and how it is used.’
Richard George, the Campaign for Better Transport’s roads and climate campaigner, urged the Government to listen to the committee and spend a portion of motoring taxes on breaking the cycle of car dependency.
The MPs also questioned the use of parking charges for wider purposes, and warned ministers that penalty charge notices must retain their credibility as an enforcement tool and not be used as a ‘blatant’ method to raise extra revenue.
Taxes and charges on road-users
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