This will be a controversial view, but I agree with pay per mile in principle. VED is not a road tax as such, and there hasn’t been a direct tax for using the roads since Winston Churchill abolished actual road tax in 1937.
VED is a pollution tax, but it isn’t completely based on how much your car pollutes - you pay a flat rate whether you drive 100miles or 100,000 miles per year in exactly the same car.
Sure, we all pay fuel duty, which is proportional to how much you drive your ICE vehicle, but again, it’s not a direct tax for using the roads and isn’t ring fenced for spending on roads.
I don’t see a problem in principle of paying based on how much we use the roads - it does depend on what rate(s) they set obviously, as something is going to have to replace declining revenues from VED and ultimately fuel duty.
The fairest way to do it is to base it on mileage driven AND weight of the vehicle. If you’ve not heard of it, look up the ‘fourth power rule’ regarding carriageway wear/ damage based on vehicle/ axle weights. That’s what highways designers use to calculate likely damage and thus substrate requirements etc. In very basic terms the damage goes up exponentially to the 4th power of vehicle/ axle weight.
We don’t buy electricity, gas, petrol, diesel and increasingly even water, at a fixed amount, no matter how much we use. I can see an argument for charging for roads use in a similar way - the more you use them, the more you pay. The heavier your vehicle, the more you pay as you will be causing more carriageway damage.
So it comes down to what rate to charge at and how mileage will be accurately recorded and billed for accordingly.
The annual MOT is one such way of collecting said mileage - sure, you’d have to have severe penalties for mileage tampering, which is not beyond the skill of man to organise. Owners could give a prediction and pay monthly, settling outstanding balance once the accurate data is collected each year. For new cars you could self declare for the first 3 years - obviously if you lie you will end up with a big bill at first MOT. If you sell the car it would be simple enough to add a ‘road tax paid to date’ search on the DVLA website to see any outstanding balance.
With the advent of GPS in cars again it shouldn’t be too difficult to record and submit total mileage (it does not have to record where your journeys were, that could be anonymised) , all it needs is total mileage to date associated with the VIN/ reg. The Jag In Control app already logs such data.
However you go about it, the fact is that the revenue generated from drivers does not cover all the associated costs of road building/ maintenance/ policing/ and externalities associated with driving, such as crash, death, injury, hospital costs etc.
VED and fuel duty currently go into the Consolidated Fund along with most other taxes. Roads are paid for out of general taxation for major roads and council tax for local roads. Everyone pays towards them as everyone benefits even if they don’t drive.
The fact that this drive (pun intended) towards fewer ICE vehicles and switch to EVs means revenue streams are declining. They will continue to do so, so something has to be done.
Whether we like it or not, congestion is growing due to the continual increase of car ownership amongst the population and the appalling lack of public transport provision outside of major cities. It has been decades in the making by successive governments refusing to accept the unpalatable truth - you can’t build your way out of congestion and decades of under funding and privatisation of rail and bus travel has left people with little choice but to drive.
So I believe roads pricing at some point is inevitable. Will it be fair? Depends on the rate they set it at. Will it hit poorer people harder? Of course it will, just like everything that is charged for does.
We all complain about tax, whatever form it takes, of course we do. We are resistant to change. That is human nature. But VED and fuel duty are slowly but surely becoming unfit for purpose, so whatever government is in power is going to have to face that reality and come up with something to replace them.
Just my thoughts without getting political - I’m not flying any flag, just trying to accept reality and be logical and fair with what I consider to be the best option.
P340 R-Dynamic RWD Coupe, Caldera Red on 19˝ Centrifuge wheels. Pzero. Mods: Reverse camera, interior/puddle lights and tinted windows.
. Now, if the government were to remove fuel duty and charge a flat rate for ALL vehicles, have at it (but we all know that's not what's going to happen, they'll hit petrol and diesel with BOTH) but the massive hurdle they face here is how they measure that mileage and how they charge you for it. Good luck sorting that problem out in a way that isn't open to MASSIVE fraud and/or public backlash.
