Roads

A debate on road pricing has been launched by the Government. The details of how the system would operate, not least technologically, have yet to be developed. Initial proposals include reducing fuel tax and vehicle excise duty to offset the additional burden to road users. The Department for Transport, however, has indicated that a national system of road pricing would not be technologically possible before 2014 which represents a significant delay in addressing the issue of congestion.

In January 2005 the House of Commons Select Committee published its report on Road Pricing: The Next Steps, following its inquiry to which the Chamber of Commerce gave written and verbal evidence. The report highlighted the need for any scheme to bring the costs in line with the benefits and be accompanied by complementary measures, not least improving public transport, traffic management and roads. The issue of who sets and regulates the charges needs to be addressed, particularly given the failings of some independent regulators in the transport sector.

Isolated road pricing schemes are already in existence, for example the M6 Toll and the Central London Congestion Charge. Such schemes can be relatively easily introduced ahead of a national road pricing system and are likely to be expanded.

There is a need to ensure that all transport funding allocations are judged according to the impact that they will have on competitiveness. The productivity category of the Transport Innovation Fund should be used to make sure that funding allocations are made based on the impact that they will have on economic growth.

Chamber of Commerce supports the principle of road pricing, but only where the aim of the charge is to reduce congestion. Road pricing should form a coherent part of the local transport infrastructure and revenue raised should not just be absorbed into general tax revenue.

Fuel duty must be abolished or reformed if a national system of road pricing is to be introduced.
Where local road pricing schemes are developed, the views of business, vital to the local economy, must be sought. Local Chambers of Commerce are ideally positioned to represent the business view at a local level.

A national payment portal must be developed to enable businesses to pay for road pricing schemes with ease. The Chamber of Commerce supports tolled roads for new capacity. This could be through an additional parallel road, such as the M6 Toll or the proposed M6 Expressway, or additional lanes on existing motorways. The Chamber of Commerce is implacably opposed to the Work Place Parking Levy.