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Road Pricing

: Her time will come. For the strategic reason that she gave, it is necessary to make a decision about how to manage a scarce resource. It can be managed by congestion or by the price mechanism. I am in favour of using sensitive price indications, with variations by time of day and route. For example, where there is a perfectly good railway line from one city to another and congestion on the motorway between those two cities in the rush hour, I am entirely relaxed about using the price mechanism to encourage the motorist out of the car and off the motorway, on to the railway. I am equally anxious to get the best possible use from the network that we have, which is grossly underused at night, by the use of, for example, zero tariffs on motorways in the small hours of the morning, if that will encourage the efficient distribution of goods. I accept that there are all sorts of political hurdles to be cleared, and I think that the Secretary of State said, when he last made a statement, that if and when the Government go down the road-pricing route it will be on a cost-neutral basis; in other words, any additional revenue raised from road pricing will be set off against either the vehicle excise duty or fuel duty. To persuade motorists that the initiative is sensible, that deal must be on the table. We are looking not for an ingenious new way for the Treasury to raise additional funds, but for a better way of using a scarce resource in the interest of all who use the roads. There may be a dialogue between the Department for Transport and the Treasury—it would not be the first time—about what that new, exciting tax or revenue-raising instrument might in due course be used for, but to take motorists with us we must make the statement that the approach is revenue-neutral.