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Road Pricing

: If road pricing were confined to motorways, the hon. Gentleman would be correct. However, if road pricing were not confined to motorways, he would be wrong because there would be a tariff for using the alternative route. The Government will have to make up their mind about whether they wish to proceed with motorway tolls or total-road charging. I am persuaded by the hon. Member for Crewe and Nantwich that it probably makes sense to have a universal scheme, but with differential tariffs. If one drives on a motorway, it will probably take less time, and the charge would be slightly higher than that of the alternative dual-carriageway road. I accept the point about diversion, but, as a matter of concern to those of us who represent rural constituencies, if the Government proceeded on a revenue-neutral basis, rural motorists would probably be in pocket as a result of that change. In my constituency, most travel would not be on the high-tariff motorways; it would be on the less highly-charged rural roads for which there is very little case for having a charge because they are underused. There is no particular need to price the motorist off the B3400 or the A343 in North-West Hampshire because there is not much traffic on those roads. There is, however, an argument for using the price mechanism to encourage people not to travel on the M3 or M4 to London during the rush hour.