Tax foreign lorries to pay for UK road improvements

“We suggest raising money from foreign lorries using our roads, to provide cash to remove bottlenecks and improve traffic flows on main roads, especially at junctions.”
Freeing Britain to Compete: Equipping the UK for Globalisation, Submission to the Shadow Cabinet
Economic Competitiveness Policy Group, Chairmen, Rt Hon John Redwood MP and Simon Wolfson Aug 2007

With the repeated grid lock on the M20 as it passes around Maidstone who could not support this recommendation. Stationary traffic is the most polluting of all traffic as it goes no where. Because of the uncompetitive domestic tax situation facing UK freight hauliers as created by Gordon Brown, 75% of the lorries in these traffic cues are in foreign ownership with the profits they make going to foreign hands and the taxes levied to foreign governments. Ie no chance of investment in UK transport infrastructure.

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More detail from the report below,
Lorry Charging – Allowing UK and Foreign Lorries to Compete Fairly
“Of the £31 billion that the Government raises annually in motoring taxation (even without taking account of corporation tax on car manufacturers and retailers), only £7 billion is spent on roads; and, as already stated, expenditure on new roads in particular has been very low in the last decade.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has concluded that: ‘The UK ranks poorly in international comparisons regarding the quality of transport infrastructure and congestion. The case for raising expenditure on strategic roads should be considered’. [Germany has double the road space per car with France and Spain having even more.]

Meanwhile, the UK road freight industry has been increasing its efficiency, with fuel consumption reduced by 16% since 1993. And although 25% of lorries still run empty, this is a 25% reduction in twenty years. But their international competitiveness has been reduced by an inequitable taxation
system, and hence the highest cost base in Europe. UK hauliers not only pay twice as much in diesel tax as their continental peers (who take on as much diesel as they can buy when leaving the French or Belgian channel ports for the UK); but they are also alone in having to pay heavy annual vehicle excise duties, simply to have the right to travel on British roads. This has resulted in a substantial loss of market share over the last ten years, with 75% of all lorries leaving the UK to travel on the Continent now foreign-owned.

The British haulage industry has made strong representations to Ministers, but to no avail. We therefore recommend that an incoming Conservative government should implement a system of charging all lorries for their mileage on British roads. At the same time, either the duty on diesel, or the rates of truck excise duty, would be reduced for UK hauliers, so that their overall level of taxation would not rise. This would have several advantages: British truck owners could compete more fairly, without breaking any EU rules; the Treasury would benefit from extra revenues as foreign trucks started to pay user charges; and there would be more money to pay for much needed road improvements.”