RAC Foundation calls for road pricing shake-up

New governing body needed to run the UK's road system efficiently

Posted: 12 July 2010
by Visordown News

THE RAC Foundation has called for Britain's road system to be made "pay as you go" following the revelation that just one third of the revenue brought in by road tax and fuel duty is being ploughed back into the UK's road network.

In his new report, Foundation head Stephen Glaister heavily critcises the UK's current road funding system, which pulls in over £46billion per annum in fuel duty and road tax, stating the majority of the revenue is being used to balance out other government money-losing schemes instead of being used to improve the country's road system.

Glaister, a retired professor of transport and infrastructure, believes the remaining revenue is spent on many of the government's cash-gobbling projects, including welfare and health. He also believes the current administration system is destined for poor performance because there's no level of ownership and no target levels of service. Glaister believes this could be remedied if control over the UK road system was handed over to a new, powerful non-government body.

Professor Glaister emphasises his proposals are to run in place of the current system, not subsidise it; serious savings could be made in road tax and fuel duty if charges were made to use motorways and other roads - similar to the schemes used in European countries.

In his report, Pro Glaister says:

User charging is one element in a balanced package of measures designed to improve conditions on the road network—with the proceeds being used to fund investment in the system. It is not simply an additional revenue-raising tool for government.

Read the Professor's report in full


Previous article
Club's push to reach £500k for air ambulance		 Next article
Test ride a Kawasaki this weekend


 
TwitterStumbleUponFacebookDiggRedditGoogle


Discuss this story


evil ken evil

so basically the fella who gets up in the morning goes to work and pays his taxes has to pay twice (once in NI and again with fuelduty and roadtax)  has to pay for a scrounging masses that have become ensconced as part of british society ( tell us something we dont know) whilst the uk road network crumbles due to lack of maintanence 

and what are the chances of the ideas in this report being taken seriously ..................0%


Posted: 12/07/2010 at 11:30


SC50

Holland will go ahead with there new road tax scheme and will tax road users per KM instead of an annual tax, this will be monitored by a GPS unit in the car, I believe they have also agreed on penalties for not using or tampering these GPS units 2 year lock up or 5K fine. At the moment this will only be for cars, tucks & tractors E.T.C.  Public transport will be free of taxation i.e. busses and taxi’s Motorcycles will keep the current taxation per year and not per KM.

Below link from a Dutch newspaper gives a little more detail into this but I can see this becoming a European norm in the future  

http://welingelichtekringen.nl/gps-will-track-dutch-drivers-for-per-mile-tax.html


Posted: 12/07/2010 at 12:02


Bikingbadger
"Glaister, a retired professor of transport and infrastructure, believes the remaining revenue is spent on many of the government's cash-gobbling projects, including welfare and health. He also believes the current administration system is destined for poor performance because there's no level of ownership and no target levels of service. Glaister believes this could be remedied if control over the UK road system was handed over to a new, powerful non-government body."


Like Railtrack with the railways then?  I cannot see why handing over to an operator with effectively no competition (i.e. I can't just choose to pay x to take his road instead if y's road is poor quality and riddled with potholes) is a miracle solution.

Posted: 12/07/2010 at 16:07


dodd
And who has access to the gps information? the police? the council? any fucker who wants it? my big brother?

Posted: 12/07/2010 at 16:41


kawa7900

ANOTHER  SCHEME  FOR RIPPING FOLK OFF FOR MORE MONEY . YEH OK GO AHEAD WITH IT , BUT DO AWAY WITH THE  ( ROAD TAX AND FUEL DUTY ) FIRST.

YEH GPS CAN ALSO TRACK SPEED AND LOCATION  , ARE YOU ALL FUCKIN DAFT ACCEPTING THIS, OR EVEN THINKING OF IT .

AS FOR THE " RAC " IT SHOULD SHUT ITS STUPID, FUCKIN MOUTH AND DO WHAT THEY TRY TO DO , AND THATS GET TO BREAKDOWNS  IN THE TIME THEY SAY THEY CAN .

IF WE HAVE ROADS THAT YOU HAVE TO PAY ON, THEY WILL BE EMPTY  WE ALL NO ONE PRIME EXAMPLE OF THAT. ALSO IT WONT HELP IN CONGESTION , NOW WILL IT .

CHARGING MONEY FOR ROADS WHILE NO ONE IS WORKING DOESNT MAKE BLOODY SENCE . FIX THE ROADS , MORE JOBS , MORE MONEY GOING INTO THE COMMUNITY AND BETTER RIGHTS FOR BRITTISH WORKERS TO GAIN BRITTISH  JOBS  .


Posted: 14/07/2010 at 17:34

Talkback: RAC Foundation calls for road pricing shake-up