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."
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Re: 'Scrap car tax, introduce tolls'
As a business user in France I pay on average 300 Euro per month for about 40 K Km's per year while using the Toll Autoroute system. It's safer, I get to my meetings on time, i'm not stressed about travelling, good services, the bill is sent directly to my office, I have a special electonic badge for quick passage at the Toll gates, the cruise control can stay on for hours. Pay for a service and it works-don't pay and you get the UK motorway system. yes, the system has it's down side for those that cannot afford the extra cost. The origianl idea of Tolls was to finance the roads and then make them free. The Toll has created a couple of big companies here and they pay extra tax to the governement while making fixed profits only; They must re-invest most of the money to develope the newtwork by law- some autoroutes are now free thanks to this law. However,extra traffic at the Tolls during summer period can ruin a holiday.If you don't want to pay then I suggest taking the TGV down south and renting a car. For a business user it's really the best solution regardless of the extra cost for my business.
Re: 'Scrap car tax, introduce tolls'
What we should have is honest taxation! The monetary requirement for the roads should be a figure that then determines vehicle taxes. Instead we have vehicle taxes in-part paying for schools and the welfare state. If we need better hospitals then income tax should go up, not extra duty put on fuel as that feeds inflation. However, there's the rub; people want a better society, while at the same time want lower taxation... Not possible! Let's start by being honest and understanding that we need to tax more, whilst not wasting it. THEN set about honest taxation. So we'd need to reduce the population, encourage foreign companies to invest (by offering free land to build industrial sites), encourage new technology with paid-for start-ups and grants (to increase exports) and look to trading partners (like we had with the Commonwealth) and not waste money within the EU (£45 million a DAY!). So basically vote for UKIP then. Wow, didn't even see that coming myself!
Re: 'Scrap car tax, introduce tolls'
Interesting idea but utterly impractical unless there is a huge investment in new infrastructure to run the programme - which would mean a huge publicly funded programme run by the government. The UK government (any party) has a long track record of failing to deliver really big programmes effectively, which would mean phasing it in in regions, which would make it even more complex and unlikely to succeed.
So here's the truth so far as I can see it, it would be easier and quicker to change from driving on the left to driving on the right than do this.
It would be better to have direct allocation of road fund licence, parking and speeding fines to transport infrastucture improvements covering road, rail and other forms of public transport so that we achieve a better balance in road and public transport usage. All we need now is an honest government supported by a Department of Transport devoid of the usual Machiavellian need to generate jobs and empires rather than deliver value to the country. And that's where it all falls down sadly.