Motorists are going to have to pay, one way or another
CHANGES to how motorists pay to drive are inevitable and some may appear sooner in Wales than England, according to a Welsh Government minister.
Traditionally, revenue to pay for maintaining and improving the road network comes from fuel duty – but that is declining as electric cars replace petrol and diesel ones.
In 2019 the Institute for Fiscal Studies said ideally fuel duty would be replaced by a variable charge per mile driven – highest on main roads at peak times.
It urged speedy implementation because introducing a new charge would be easier before, rather than after, “expectation of low taxes on electric motoring is ingrained”.
But the UK Government has still not produced firm proposals, despite the growth in electric cars.
Lee Waters, Wales’ deputy climate change minister, said: “The UK Government is going to have to shift away from petrol as a significant revenue raiser and move towards some form of road user charging. That is inevitable.
“There’s a missing piece of the puzzle in the UK Government’s thinking around carbon reductions for transport.
“The stuff that Grant Shapps [UK Transport Secretary] has come out with in the last couple of months seems to think that technology alone will solve transport’s contribution to climate change, and we carry on with hyper mobility. I don’t think that’s right, and neither does the UK Climate Change Committee. “They [the UK Government] are unwilling to confront the difficulties, and I think that’s disingenuous. “No matter what they say – they may not want to ‘fess up’ publicly that they want to do this – but there’s an inevitability that they will have to introduce road user charging because the current model will collapse as people move to electric vehicles.” Last year, an expert review of road user charging options for Wales advised that introducing a Waleswide charge, independently of reforms by the UK Government, would be “very blunt or extremely complicated”. It also warned against piecemeal development of charges in different areas of Wales, arguing for coordination within Wales and across the border. Mr Waters believes it would be feasible to introduce regional road user charging in Wales once alternatives to driving cars are easy enough for people to use. “Cardiff is already signalling a way of moving ahead of the pack, so I don’t think we need to wait for England to do it,” he said. Last year Cardiff Council unveiled plans to charge motorists £2 per day for driving into Cardiff to fund a programme of transport improvements. The idea was criticised as a “Valleys tax” because it would exempt Cardiff’s own residents. Mr Waters said any new charge would have to apply fairly across a region. He explained: “Further down the road, we’re going to have to put in things which make it difficult for the car to be the first choice.
“You start with making things easier before you start making things difficult.”
Would the time to start actively discouraging car use in the Cardiff city region be after completion of Core Valley Lines modernisation, due in 2023?
By then Cardiff will also boast electric buses, “cycle superhighways” and possibly additional railway stations, including Cardiff Parkway in St Mellons.
“Cardiff Council doesn’t get enough credit for really being a bold authority,” Mr Waters responded.
“Not only has it reallocated road space [to buses and active travel] but has signalled a move towards road user charging with funding hypothecated towards improving public transport.
“I think that is the way to go. People would understand the need to pay some charges if they felt that money was being invested in giving them realistic alternatives to driving. It’s when people feel penalised that you get opposition.”
He added: “I don’t think clobbering people with additional charges is going to get people in the place we want them to be in order to achieve this massive societal challenge we face.”
The UK Government is going to have to shift away from petrol as a significant revenue raiser and move towards some form of road user charging. That is inevitable Lee Waters, Wales’ deputy climate change minister