Tory rebel’s road pricing call

26th July 2010

A top Tory has come out in support of road pricing, breaking ranks with the Transport Secretary. Tim Yeo MP says that pay as you drive on motorways would fund better roads, encourage more sales of lower-CO2 cars and cut congestion.

Yeo, the influential chairman of the Commons Energy and Climate Change Select Committee, added that by allowing a cut in fuel duty, the cost of driving would come down for people who make little use of motorways. “Only owners of high-emission vehicles who drive on motorways regularly at peak times would be worse off,” he wrote in a report. He is the first high-profile politician to back road pricing since Labour ditched its own plans in 2007 in the face of a massive public outcry.

Transport Secretary Phillip Hammond has ruled out tolls for existing roads, instead backing them for new motorways. But Yeo supports the RAC Foundation’s call early this month for roads pricing. “Politicians have been reluctant to embrace the huge potential which a truly radical pricing system offers,” he wrote.