Scrap car tax, introduce tolls
Tuesday 30th October, 2012
Think-tank suggests radical overhaul of how roads are run:
Car tax should be scrapped, and 10p a mile tolls introduced on all motorways and major A-roads, according to an influential think-tank.
The Social Market Foundation (SMF) also proposes that all roads should be owned by UK citizens rather than the government.
Each UK national would get shares in the road network, and then take a proportion of the income from road charging. SMF estimates at current road useage rates this would bring in an income of £1500 per person per year.
The think-tank says the 'average motorist' would be better off by £75 a year under the scheme, once their share dividend had been paid and the road tax charges dropped.
"We don't see this as far-fetched stuff," said the report's co-author, David Furness. "We think it's much better for people to own the major roads than for the money to go to the Treasury."
Ian Mulheirn, co-author of the report, added: "Instead, we must make better use of our existing infrastructure by pricing the roads so that drivers have an incentive to use them during less crowded periods.
"But road charging shouldn't benefit government or big business. Instead, every citizen should be made a shareholder of the roads so that they benefit from any profits from road charging."
(source: Autocar)
