Between Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) and fuel duty, the Treasury typically pockets around £40bn each year, a not insubstantial amount of money, but as the push for greener vehicles gets into its stride, there will very clearly be a hole in that revenue, and it’s one that will need plugging.
The two important questions are: Where will that shortfall come from? And will there be an overlap between VED and whatever new plan is put in place?
Per mile charging
The Chair of the Transport Committee, Lilian Greenwood, has proposed that a national debate take place to discuss the issue, claiming that a debate would be “An opportunity to discuss the nation’s use of road space, cutting carbon emissions, tackling congestion and how we should prioritise active travel.”
“Tackling the climate emergency is essential, but this is about more than what we must do to meet that challenge, it’s also about our health, and the sort of towns and cities we want to live in.”
A cynic may say that with such focus on health, air pollution and congestion, rather than encouraging or incentivising other forms of transport or motive power, it’s pretty much guaranteed that “this isn’t about pricing drivers off the road” will pretty much exactly equate to that.
Paying more?
Research by the RAC has shown that 75% of motorists are worried that any change in how we pay for the roads will result in them paying more, and with sales of new Battery Electric Vehicles rising by 122% in the first nine months of 2019 (despite there being an overall 2.5% downturn in new car sales), we can clearly see that the government will need to implement a new pricing strategy sooner rather than later.
It’s long been argued that whatever form of taxation (such as the current VED) is added to the price of fuel; motorists who use the roads, will pay for the roads, but it’s quite possible that adding a surcharge to fuel will price hundreds of thousands of families off the road, and that still wouldn’t be a solution to the whole electricity debate.
Further still, it’s not quite as simple as adding tariffs to our domestic energy supply either – what of those motorists that haven’t been able to afford, or want, to make that switch over to ‘green’ motoring? It’s pretty clear that there must be some overlap between the systems.
Previous attempts
Back in 2005, an attempt was made to introduce, or at least, discuss, a new way to charge to motorists for using the roads. The idea being that small cars on small or uncongested roads would pay less than large cars using large or congested roads.
The examples used at the time were £0.02 per mile on uncongested roads, and as much as £1.34 where traffic was a problem. Each car would be fitted with satellite technology, which could track and calculate charges as the car was driven.
Unsurprisingly, 1.8 million motorists (around 6% of all drivers at the time) signed a petition against the scheme in 2007, and it was duly dropped. Fears of extra stealth surveillance and taxation were the main concerns.
Modern day
Worryingly, we’ve become so used to in-car technology, and the interference with our driving, that it will soon be mandatory to allow it to limit our speed, which of course means tracking our movements. As Lilian Greenwood points out – we’re much more aware of issues such as climate change, pollution and congestion now. So could this be part of the next attempt to monitor driving and apply charges?
There has been talk of ‘charge neutral’ and ‘congestion neutral’ pricing, but reading between the lines of the earlier statement by Greenwood, it would seem that congestion and air pollution are two of the hottest topics to be covered, so it’s doubtful that congestion neutral pricing will happen.
Given that any pricing structure would need to cover congestion, air pollution, emissions, road usage & maintenance, fuel duty and electric charging, it would seem doubtful that we’d be looking at the lower end of per mile charging.
National debate
The Transport Committee have proposed a national debate take place in 2020, in which these issues can be discussed, and put forward to the public for their input: “This isn’t about pricing drivers off the road, it’s about making sure that as many people as possible have a say in future plans so that we can manage the changes to come. The Transport Committee want to kickstart that conversation.”
Rarely have charges been introduced that favour the motorist, we often hear about stealth taxes and how it’s the motorist that’s being made to make up any shortfalls of revenue, we’d suspect this won’t be much different.
How should the government tackle this problem? What would be a fair pricing scheme? Do you think it could price some families off the road? Let us know in the comments.
Why not pay per mile, it’s the fairest way, the more you drive the more you use the road the more you should pay. All other utilities are based on usage. My road tax is over £400 / year year I only drive 4000 miles a year..
So your charged 10p a mile £400 over 4000 miles ..do you consider that’s lot….I live in Cornwall where we have no motorways or underground’s or regular buses or good trains which only go main towns not villages ..our main route from Redruth to Helston is a windy road I am not kidding.our population of approx 550,000 swells to 3 million in the summer all using roads like this …we are one of the poorest county’s I work nights sleep in weekends holiday have to make life and death decisions and sometimes prescribe emergency medication to keep someone alive and I do that for less than 18000 a year as a support worker with vast infrastructure so bad and so little and a car has been a necessity not a luxury due to the lack of regular public transport to get every 5 10 minutes buses and trains like you getting in a city… So the government must get to look at issues such as Cornwall and also other extreme reaches of the UK in Scotland and Wales that are like this when you look at the city and the towns at new price rates , you need to take away the unique scenario that is Cornwall and some reaches of Scotland and Wales
This also scares me Justin ! I’m 76 disabled, & live in a remote area of Scotland.
Have to travel on single track roads, & my nearest Town is 66 a mile round trip
away. The only Bank in this area closed 3 years go & we have no signal
for mobile phones etc ! I rely on my vehicle ( along with a wheelchair )
to get me anywhere. Hope the powers that be will realise, we don’t all live in London,
with ” on tap ” public transport…not that some of us are able tto use it !
If you register your car in the disabled tax category then you receive your tax on your vehicle free as well as some road and city charges
But if charges are to be made by a satalight system of how many miles travelled. will the mobility element compensate in any way?
I do get free Tax Dave, but if theyy do away with Tax what then
Only if you receive higher rate DLA or PIP. Anyone who becomes disabled over 65 cannot claim. Many people have lost their benefit due to harsher PIP rules.
Anyway, we already pay per mile – it’s called fuel duty and VAT. The more efficient your vehicle, the less you pay.
What happend to the O tax on small cars. What happend the government done a wrong one people started buying. Small cars with o tax then thay went and change it. I wonder why.
DLA is now dead and gradually being phased out, Sickens me down to the bone hearing cases over this PIP crap, there is a neighbour near me who gets the highest rate and has just got herself a brand new mobility car & blue badge! I’m still at a loss as to why she gets it ? She mows the lawn – gets down on her hands & knees to deweed – washes the car every week – goes shopping everyday – takes her dog for walks – runs up & down 6 steps to her house everyday…….Yet in her car are two NHS alloy walking sticks, which I’ve never seen her use yet.
people who get the lower level of mobility can get a 50% reduction in road excise duty. To do so they have to send a cheque (how many people still have a cheque book) and proof to dvla. This is not advertised anywhere nor are people on the lower mate of mobilty told this.
From what I can see those on lower rate do not get it :-/
https://www.gov.uk/financial-help-disabled/vehicles-and-transport
Please read the post I just added…I think you will find it to be the best prospect for EVERYONE in UK…
Sadly Dave, the DWP are currently removing people out of this tax category by transferring them onto PIPS.
Still got to pay for fuel just like everyone else
If only we had to pay for just the cost of the fuel – 3/4 of what we pay is fuel duty, VAT on the fuel cost, plus VAT on the fuel duty.
Yes pay for fuel and then possibly up to £1 + per mile , so a commute to work might cost you £35-40 per day . I think there might be fucking riots
Not everyone qualifies for notability vehicles. Therefore cars are not registered in disabled categories
It is Motability, and any private car that a person who gets higher rate Moblity benefit can register ANY car as disabled. does not have to be one supplied by Motability.
alan when you have higher rate mobility and a motability car your right to free car tax is used for that vehicle. If you get higher rate mobility but do not have a car you are allowed to use it for another persons car as long as that car is used to take you to appointments etc. those on the lower rate of mobility can get a 50% reduction on their car tax. They have to send a cheque for 50% of the full cost with proof of benefit. But you try and find out about it. nobody is told about this.
People on the lower rate of mobility can get A 50% REDUCTION ON THEIR CAR TAX. they have to send a cheque for 50% of their vehicle tax and proof of lower rate mobility to dvla. But nobody is told of this.
You only get free tax, if you receive the highest rate disability benefit. Most people with Blue badges, do not qualify for that, so in most cases your suggestion is not applicable
Vic
You need High rate Mobility,not higher rate disability, that is the care component, it has to be the ability not to be able to walk, without pain for so many yards/feet/metres.
Thats all well and good, but not everyone with a medical problem are able to get a blue badge.
yep .
just lost all my DWP, PIP and blue badge in spite of still being seriously ill. not having a car is not really an option, but now I am pushed into poverty
I feel your worry & pain Betty, I go for a face to face interview in a couple of weeks, previously got DLA for life because I can’t hardly walk anywhere, got Spondylosis of the lower spine, three discs shot, can’t understand why if I was awarded this DLA for life that I’m now got to apply for PIP as a ‘brand new claim’ missus is also worried to death as to what will happen to me and at the interview.
ian try fightback for justice on facebook they can help advise on filling out forms interviews and also appeals.
I’ve heard of them a week or two ago, to use them I have to pay, I don’t work so paying a monthly subscription is a no no for me.
Take an independant advocate along with you….. if you have a Citizens Advice Bureau somewhere near you pop in and tell them and they will tell you where to get a suitable advocate from… and that service is FREE…..
Also….. see the post I just added…..Please read the post I just added…I think you will find it to be the best prospect for EVERYONE in UK…
off the track but use the following on MR:- https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5d121f2b40f0b6350c9e4058/CPIP_2477_2018-00.pdf
and https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5baf2b9940f0b62db8cacb0a/CE_1316_2017-00.pdf very useful
YEA and how will this work IF NO VED then?.
My wife is disabled and our combined pensions are just over the limit to claim anything such as PIP (we are to old to claim) cannot claim tax credit or any other benefit except for the blue badge so not all disable people can claim tax on their car so will have to pay any money the Govt. asked. The fairest way is to pay as we do now. And we could not afford an electric car the cost is way out of our pockets,even for a 2nd hand car. People who can afford an electric car are either very well off or it will be company owned.
I am in a similar situation. Have a blue badge but not a lot of good for visiting City since original parking spots are now taken up by bus lanes. Hence I use a park and ride scheme which costs £5.50 a time and requires a round trip of 9 mile4s to use it. Because of my disability, I am unable to reach public transport, so car is the only option.
As for the electric variety, charging points are scarce, so currently not an option, even if I could afford one.
Michael, have you looked at claiming Attendance Allowance? It is not a means tested benefit and is available for people of pension age who require extra support. https://www.carersuk.org/help-and-advice/financial-support/help-with-benefits/attendance-allowance?gclid=Cj0KCQjwi7DtBRCLARIsAGCJWBrwvi6gJ5NKcthO-5lf6gk-yxiFJIlnTZC7Ma4ghPtaFptlXPXpr4EaAgmVEALw_wcB
The price of electric cars will come down rapidly when they are mass-produced by several competing manufacturers. Also battery technology will improve to provide greater range and cheaper manufacture. Such changes need government incentives to give them a kick-start, but will soon become market-driven. Then taxes will kick in, but taxes of EVs must remain lower than gas-guzzlers, which will eventually be priced out of the market.
Please read the post I just added…I think you will find it to be the best prospect for EVERYONE in UK…
You can only register your car as VED free if you receive the higher rate mobility allowance. Not every disabled person does.
Disabled vehicle tax is only available to people in receipt of the benefit DLA or PIP at the highest mobility rate. Not only is this very hard to get and to keep it is not available to first time applicants aged 64 and over. This means that there thousands of 64+ people not only denied disability payments but have to pay the standard VED rate. Sadly many can only afford older cars that have high VED rates and use more fuel.
With all of these proposals of course there must be exceptions for people like yourself who rely upon a car through no fault of there own. But children being driven five minutes up the road to school in an SUV causing massive amounts of congestion and pollution where they could walk is unacceptable and lazy of the parents. (I do not blame the children just their parents for being lazy), this is the type of behaviour we need to change.
This is certainly the case where I live, the village is clogged with large cars often parked across pavements obstructing wheelchairs and often blocking entrance and exit to pur estate which is next to the school. Recently the PCSOs have instituted a policy of lifting offending vehicles.
How short sighted you are! I live in Somerset and have to drop one child off at school and then travel 20 miles to a different school to drop off a second child before driving another 15 miles to work. Am I expected to walk? I repeat this journey again in the afternoon. I use a 4 x 4 because I need it for my work as well as negotiating the often flooded roads of the county?
Don’t think OP was citing people in your situation.
how did you manage before the trend of 4×4 ownership? or did you always own a Land Rover/Range Rover?
If you sent your child to the nearest state school instead of exercising parental choice, you wouldn’t have to drive them 20 miles. If the nearest state school was over 3 miles away, they would be entitled to free school transport. Consider if you NEED to be cluttering up the roads, polluting the atmosphere and wasting finite fossil fuels in this way. Do you need to live 15 miles from work? Could you move nearer to both work and state schools? Or is this is a matter of the choices you have made?
Is there something wrong with the schools closer to you?
I fully agree George, and chose not to start work until 10.00 am so that I could walk my three children to school then walked home and drove to work. I returned home in time to walk and collect them from school but then a very good friend one day said to me – but what about all the pollution they are breathing in as you walk alongside all those queuing cars?
The trouble is, that it is no longer safe to walk children to school because of the cars parked on the footpath forcing pedestrians into the road. I can see now why people drive! What we need is to cure the country of anti-social behaviour generally.
Didn’t we used to have a police force long ago? Before we had a police service, before we had nothing?
Oh its cars on pavements now as well, which stops people walking children to school, there is a long list now, including perverts, dark and wet mornings, lack of public transport for the longer trips, parental time constraints, etc. I drop my grandson off at school on my way to work and have to say never see cars on pavements blocking these little darlings way to school until you actually reach the school where total chaos ensues as all the idiot parents exercise their right to park where think they need to so they drop of their child as close to school gates as possible, which includes double parking blocking off the road completely parking not half on pavement but completely on the pavement right across the school gates stopping any vehicle getting in or out, I park just a little down the road where its clear of these morons and we do a two minute walk to the gates and avoid all the chaos of the school run. God help these people when cars return to being so expensive we can’t afford to own half a dozen of them each and end up having to walk children to school, you might even get a parking space outside your own house.
In many areas it is illegal to park on pavements and if it can be proved that you have damaged the payment you will be charged for the cost of the repair,the same when you park on a grass verge
Who enforces these laws now ??
What does this have to do with the question about paying per mile please?
I recently watched someone drive 500 yards to a local school and then drive back. It was not raining or particularly cold. Perhaps introduce a no parking zone around schools at start and opening times.
Yeah that’s a good idea then all the lazy t*ats park in nearby streets such as mine and block driveways and cause congestion just because their brats can’t or won’t walk to school.
Why do people seem to criticise SUVs, as if they were a double decker bus.
The footprint of an SUV, is no different to the average car, the only difference is the height and that does not cause congestion.
I agree with you George as to Lazy inconsiderate parents, it rife where i am.
Their behaviour won’t change hooray Henrietta can afford it
George I am sorry but have you heard of knife crime across the UK. I will drop my son to school if it means he will arrive safely to and from school also it’s my freedom of choice if I want to drive 10 Min down the road. I am sick of all you gullible people who believe our lying government and one sided media care about us. The fact is if we where still using horse drawn carriages our government would still tax us, possibly for the horse shit dropped as we travel on the land that should belong to all living beings not to government departments or BIG Corporations . The British public is taxed for everything our government can tax us on. The motor vehicle is being blamed for air pollution and climate change, but no one is blaming Big Corporations like the chemical industries, gadget industries and the most dangerous of all deforestation just so we can have products like toilet paper to wipe our asses. The idea of our lives being tracked by radio waves everywhere we go is called modern day slavery, slavery without chains . The limiting of our speed is a joke, again if we still rode horses how would the Government stop us using all that horse power every human should be held accountable for their own actions but not accountable to a Dictatorship style government which sounds like that’s where heading. The people of the World love Capitalism regardless of the devastating damage it is causing to the Planet, but lets blame the road users lets face it we are gullible and a push over…..yes we have become so pampered it’s a joke, we are all lazy not just the mom’s/dad’s who drive SUV’s to drop their most precious kids to school for their safety from gangs and child predators. The current system is fine expensive but fine. The Government is panicking because they created incentives for driving so called greener motor vehicles, now they are becoming increasingly popular it means less money for the repayment of the interest on the National debt, so they are now thinking of ways to stem the leak of taxes by low emission vehicles but! hear the joke it was our own Government who introduced tax exceptions for low emission vehicles.
I am in the same position as is my wife. This would cripple us financially or make us essentially housebound
I’m unsure what you’re worried about. A simple calculation and you’d pay £1.32.how many trips could you make for the cost of your VED?
Hi Marion, as a wheelchair user you should not be paying Road tax, so any change would not effect you?
Im also in a wheelchair and on a very limited income and if this happens Im going too be scared to drive anywhere!
Marion… Please read the post I just added…I think you will find it to be the best prospect for EVERYONE in UK…
I would expect that remote uncongested roads such as you describe would attract the very lowest charge per mile.
I’ll swap Cornish roads for London anyday.
Your dealing with a Govt so common sense doesn’t apply.
I have to travel 35 miles to work every day and 35 miles home again plus some running around to get parts needed for jobs, so I do around 400 miles a week just for work. This would cripple my business and all like me.
Totally agree, if you dont have a car in Cornwall, you become a hermit, the buses are poor and expensive and the trains only go north to south and vice versa
its also the same in Cumbria, County Durham, and most of Scotland, in my experience.
Our bus service has just been completely axed – and was inadequate before. I’m in a village in East Midlands. I think you’ll find most rural areas are in a similar position. We avoid using the car in the village but main shop, hospital, dentist etc all need a car. Taxis are unaffordable, based miles away and mostly less modern diesels. My partner is in his 70s – he still cycles locally but the main road is dangerous- lots of heavy lorries thanks to daft local planning and what happens when we’re older?
Mike – It’s no better in the outlying areas in Devon. If you live in one of the bigger cities they have regular bus services, trains etc but in smaller areas the buses are irregular, do not go from A to B but take you on a 90 minute scenic route for what is essentially a 15 minute journey. I’m disabled, if I want to go to a nearby seaside town then it’s either 90 minutes by bus or a 30 minute bus journey to the railway station in a nearby city, wait 40 minutes for the next train that does multiple stops and get to my destination 25 minutes later. The Government is simply looking at new ways to extract more money from what they see as ‘cash cows’. The motorist has always been viewed as an easy option.
Stranglely the lack of public tranport also applies in Berkshire – I mean SEMI-rural Berkshire, not the small villages. When I went to school in Weston-Super-Mare, it was just under 3 miles ACROSS THE MUDDY OR FLOODED BAY. so I had to cycle to school. Sometimes in the winter, this was through 6 inches of sea water. The promenade FLOODED.
The 3 mile limit was and is often stupidly applied!
Don’t you think there’s rural communities in p
aces other than Cornwall and Scotland then? Lets face it we are all in the same boat and most people will not be able to cope with what’s coming, only the better off in society. As in your case what would your clients do without you, everyone will be in the s~~t when they price us off the roads. No matter what they put in place you can rest assured the better off will go on as normal. ie Elton John offsetting the price of Prince Harry’s carbon footprint. (Airmiles).
The problem is that those setting these rates or systems probably live and work in London with exceptional public transport and have NO Idea of the problems faced by those outside London.
You only have to listen to idiots like Jerremy Vyne who thinks Everyone should cycle
Be careful what you wish for. If there was decent public transport in Cornwall even more people would move there and it would become a building site.
Please read the post I just added…I think you will find it to be the best prospect for EVERYONE in UK…
You are not the only person who finds a car essential I cannot get to work on public transport as it’s not available when I need it so if they take the average of 12000 miles per year as a proportion of the ved and you do less you’re quids in
Very good point Justin sadly there as you say lots of areas in s similar position to you like in and around the New forest in hand/Dorset and others. And yes it has to be more than just a cash cow, the main problems of bad air and Nox from cars,/trucks I am asthmatic and know after several hours in London how bad the sir is , Big problem Buy it as you said be Fair. .
I sympathise with you-although a Londoner I do venture to your lovely county for holidays in which I visit friends and relatives, one of whom lives in Redruth!
Nope – the “fairest” way is to scrap VED completely and add a few pence to the fuel per litre. This achieves several things.
1. Everybody would pay road tax – no more un-taxed vehicles on the road, (of which there are many.
2. It would be proportional – more you drive=more you pay.
3. It would also tax foreign vehicles – especially huge lorries.
4. It would get rid of some of the jobs at DVLA that are related to collecting VED
This is as obvious as the nose on my face.
If you are paying over £400 a year then you must be driving a fairly large polluting vehicle, solution, downsize to something more enconomical. my 1.6 TD Focus is £20 a year…
DaveB, they cond us with road tax, when they did co2 emissions as tax band, your 20 quid car has stayed the same, my car has gone up every year from just over 200 to 400. I did reduce my car from a 4.4 v8 petrol to a 3.0 diesel, your focus isn’t big enough to pull my trailer of work gear of 2000kg. My hgv was also a con, 44 ton road tax on old one was 640 quid. New road tax on euro 5 that we were forced into by government with congestion zones, 1200 quid. Just out to rob us blind, can you imagine the UK food prices with all the extra costs of transport? Because it will all pass on to you, the customer.
You make some relevant points, what do continental European hauliers get charged to use our our roads?
Nothing
Not much many foreign lorries have extra tanks so they do not have to fill up in the UK so avoiding UK fuel tax
So how much more wear and tear does a 2000kg trailer do to the roads and how much more congestion does it cause. Perhaps they should add an additional charge for trailers and caravans.
After the first 12 months VED is £145. https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-rate-tables
Not for long.
No …. he (Michael Smith) drives a potentially polluting vehicle. The fact that he only drives 4000 miles a year means that he doesn’t cause much actual pollution. Therefore why hammer him with an unfair tax?
Surely, the most equitable way to tax car use is at the pump. Just because you drive a small economical car (like I do) doesn’t mean that you don’t cause much pollution ….. especially if you drive high mileages.
I would therefore abolish VED and load it all onto the cost of fuel. There is already a mechanism to collect that tax, so requires no further administration or red tape. Further, it means that a whole government department could be abolished (which is probably a reason why they won’t do it), resulting in saving to the tax payer. It would also be impossible to avoid.
Great, but what do you do about electric cars that are driving with only domestic fuel VAT?
It’s ok putting ved onto pump prices, but the issue the government are concerned about is the loss of revenue from fuel duty due to more people going electric, does that mean that petrol and diesel drivers then make up the shortfall?
What about business that rely on road transport to deliver their goods nationwide?
I completely agree with you AndyC, abolish VED & add 1 or 2p to the price of fuel & then the motorists doing less mileage pay less & the heavy road users pay more. It would also raise revenue from the foreign drivers when they fuel up at the UK stations. To raise revenue from the people who feel the need to drive an electric vehicle, a meter could be fitted to the charge point for their vehicle to calculate the VED required. This seems the fairest & most logical way to go, then the people with little economical cars nipping to the shops once or twice a week only pay a small amount, whereas the reps & businessmen in their large executive cars using more fuel doing tens of thousands of miles a year pay a larger amount, simple. Oooops, sorry, did I say fairest & logical way to go? I forgot, the buffoons in charge don’t do fair & logical!!
I take the point about VED but as somebody said above – “we’re dealing with Government’s here” and greedy ones at that. When the last proposal to stop charging VED and load the cost onto fuel at the pump they didn’t aim to put 1p or 2p on the pump price but a heck of a lot more – way more than would have compensated for the loss of VED income to the Government. I don’t have a direct objection to putting the tax entirely on fuel because it might help to reduce wasteful driving habits, but let’s keep it fair and proportional – not just another grab for lots of extra tax money. I also have sympathy for the commentators in Cornwall and Scotland who have little choice but to use the car – perhaps that is a good reason to give the Governments a damned good kick up the backside and get their act together about public transport provision.
That’s very short sighted. Increasing the cost of fuel would increase the cost for hauliers, put up the price of food and good and increase the cost of living. It’s not just Joe Public going to work but the companies that deliver everything to the shops.
I’m planning to buy a plug in hybrid and charge it at home next time around; so I won’t often pay tax on petrol at the pump and creating a new tax toapply when I recharge elsewhere will not often hit me either. We seem to be losing sight of the depreciation costs for owning a car – they’re well above the payments of VED, fuel etc for most of us.
they already did that many years ago. then they decided to add to it by reinstating the ‘tax disc’ (as it was at the time) and NOT removing it from the fuel. they also charge VAT on the FUEL DUTY tax you are already paying (so taxed on TAX) and THEN they added it to insurance premiums too!
motorists pay far more on motoring taxes than is EVER spent on the roads. time the government found a new, fairer scapegoat. taxes wont stop people using cars if they need to. it will just increase unemployment if the cost of having to travel to work means working doesnt pay!
They already did this is the 1980’s I guess, problem was they put the fuel price up but never removed the VED.
If you drive high mileages, the engine will nearly always be operating at it’s most efficient & least polluting manner. Low annual mileages usually consist of short journeys where the vehicle doesn’t get warm let alone hot. This means that the vehicle is operating at it’s least efficient & therefore pumping out pretty well maximum pollution on every journey. This could mean that someone doing 8000 miles a year doing longish journeys each time with a hot engine could be paying twice as much as someone driving 4000 miles a year on purely short journeys, even though the person doing the lower mileage could potentially be pushing out more pollution than the longer distance driver. These things are not always so simple or as fair as people think.
But not retrospective of course
My current ved is £20 a year, my car will be five years old next April when I will hopefully change it for the same model, the big difference is, the new car, same spec etc will cost me £145 then from the second year an extra £310, so £455 for a car that currently cost me £20……as usual it’s all about greed from the government.
So don’t change your car then? I mean what will happen to it just because it has its fifth birthday?
Typical response from a clown.
You’re right…yours was.
That’s incorrect. The VED would be £145 a year, unless the vehicles book value (when new and before optional extras) is over £30k, in that case £500 a year for the first five years would be applied.
That’s incorrect, vehicles value over 40k,first year tax £145,tax from 2nd to 5th year an extra £310 plus the £145……
Simple answer then…….don’t change your car. There’s nothing wrong with a 5 year old car, do you really NEED to change it. I cant afford a 5 year old car they’re too expensive.
I also pay over £400 a year, made up of the standard £140, plus another £365, payable for the first 4 years. This is purely because my car was more than £40k.
My wife changed her diesel Clio, originally purchased after encouragement from the government to drive low CO2 vehicles. VED was £20. She now has a 900cc petro Clio, which is costing £145.
If you can afford a car worth more than 40k what exactly is the point of you joining this discussion? Clearly money doesn’t matter much to you.
sadly not an option for everyone. i have a Mondeo as the Focus was too small to carry everything i needed to, and the passengers as well.
The price of the vehicle also comes into play so your comment is a little unfounded.
And I can bet my life if we compare our emissions from our MOT’s my 4.4 V8 Porsche produces less than your diesel Focus. That’s my argument with this….behicles over acertain age are taxed on engine…not emissions…no matter how low they may be. So no, pull your head out and realise it has very little to do with the size of your car.
The fairest way to me is to scrap road tax and add a small amount in tax to the cost of fuel. An average mileage would then recover about the same as the current VED rate, those doing more mileage would pay more and those driving less would pay less.
No expensive infrastructure would be required to collect this taxation it would all be done at the pumps.
As long as there is a mechanism in place to enforce non-UK vehicles to also pay then this is a fairer system.
This already happens by way of fuel duty. The more miles you do, the more fuel you use, therefore the more tax you pay. Civil servants spend their entire working careers, looking at, and inventing ever more ways to take money from the motorist. It’s a simple concept, we all need our cars so just keep on upping the anti, they know we don’t have any other option but to pay up.
Exactly right and spot on.Only very naive people think this is not a cynical attempt to get more money out of us
Dead Wright.
Buy a less poluting car maybe ? Mines only £30.00 a year
I have a 7 1/2 ton lorry that cost £70 per year! Is this right. I have a matiz as well that costs more to tax?? You don’t see HGV’s getting hammered as they have an association which actually looks after their interests!
You don’t see HGV’s getting hammered because the economy would fall flat on its face if everything went up in price.
You do see cars go up in price because in many cases (not all I’ll concede) car journeys just aren’t needed.
My Hyundai i20 is subject to £0-00 VED as it was registered in 2016. I only drive around 4500 miles a year and would be happy to pay more on fuel.
Get a more efficient car then it won’t cost you that much for tax
Do you think this government will replace road tax with a mileage tax? They will charge both.
Sucked in by the government ,if you want to pay for the roads by paying per mile ,pay mine,we already pay more than double for the roads ,that’s why the government are pocketing so much money.
So you pay over £400 per year for car tax that says you have a huge car unlike the rest of us we have tiny cars with tiny engines that do less damage to the roads with less pollution unlike your car hence is why we pay car tax to begin with so all these new silly ideas is just another way of making money that will end up in someone pocket
Why not ??🤔Because we pay enough to use the roads anyway or did you think they are gonna magically abolish all the other charges including ULEZ which is about to be extended🤔
Mr Smith you deserve to pay having such a thirsty poluting car. I only pay £30 pounds a year road tax
Buy a more tax efficient car then
And if vehicles used for work are taxed per mile, the cost will be passed on to consumers anyway, so everyone will still pay for it
I pay £0 a year for my ford fiesta ecoboost but drive over 20k miles a year. I spend over £2000 a year on fuel, why should a pay more, when probably over £1000 a year of that money goes towards tax and VAT.
Nah. I get my car serviced twice a year, so thats now a minimum of £1040 on tax. Plus extras, car washing, tolls, parking etc.
I spend an absolute fortune on my car. It’s a joke.
Get a smaller car instead of a Chelsea tractor
Get a cheaper tax band car?
there arent cheaper tax band cars now. the extra is added on as cars cross the £40k price threshold, which more and more do as they charge more for the cars because they have to legally add garbage that nobody ive spoken to even WANTS.
You must have a polututing car then mine is £30 a year get a smaller less gas guzzling one
Cities are the most polluted, where people have alternative transport and travel short distances in cars, causing the most pollution. A per mile scheme therefore makes no sense what so ever! The forgotten people, who live outside the Metropolis are already unfairly treated, as they have no local Public transport system (which they subsidise through tax) plus they pay more for fuel tax, as have to travel further and more frequently in their cars.
£400 road tax? Bloody hell what do you drive? A Tank?
The guy who spends an hour driving 10 miles to work in a congested city causes more pollution, affecting more people, than the guy who drives twice as far in half the time out of town.
Pence/mile charging would be neither fair to the motorist nor beneficial to the environment.
Read my message by William read and learn as I believe your dissalusional not your fault this governments fault my message will enlighten you.
Get a smaller car. You will pay no or next to no tax. Bigger car bigger emissions. More tax
I’m a district nurse and use my own car, why should I be penalised Per mile for looking after patients in their own homes and keep out of hospital
You wouldn’t be penalised, your mileage allowance would just increase in line with the cost.
No it’s not, what about those of us that live in rural areas with virtually no public transport and no local amenities such as shops so we have to drive everywhere. We rarely drive into cities but will get penalised for essential driving, we have to drive children to school and nursery and to get to the doctors and pick up medications etc . Not sure what the answer is really.
drive some more then and your extra taxes via fuel purchase will help others
400 a year? The rich always get richer.
You’re already paying more if you use more fuel by paying more tax and vat. If they charged per mile but no vat or tax then fair enough but per mile will be on top, so no thanks!
But what if your on minimum wage in a 1.0 Ltr fiesta travelling 30 mikes to work?
You would pay more than a company director travelling 15 miles in a 4ltr Porsche Cayman which is far more harmful to the environment.
Pay per mile is not a fair way.
It’s just a way for the government to make more money.
I don’t drive my car in rush hour traffic for the fun of it. I drive because it’s the fastest, most practical way of getting to and from work.
Making it cost more wouldn’t stop me from driving, it would just hurt my finances and make the government’s wage bills higher.
And this is the daft uneducated thing…if you look at the MOT’s…I bet you the Porsche is far less polluting than the not very well maintained Fiesta…the Porsche is just screwed because of it’s value (or engine size if old)…has nothing at all to do with pollution or emissions.
No wonder your happy to pay so much, any motorist paying over £400 tax per year is driving a vehicle well beyond the average working man’s salary
Adds, no he may have been stung as I said earlier, my road tax has gone from 200 to 400 quid in the 12 years I’ve had my 89000 pound car. Now its worth may be 6, but I bought it second hand for 30k when it was near 3 years old. Don’t think about the new price, it still costs you the same tax when second hand!
Yeah, £1.34/mile * 4000 miles = £5360, more than your current £400 year tax. Really good move.
We already pay per mile every litre you use is taxed, somewhere in the region of 80 pence, then your taxed on top to use your car, all vehicles above £40k are taxed for the first 5 years, how many times would you like to pay to use the roads
Also make cyclelist pay insurance and a license and test to use the road with fines for jumping lights peddling on pavements and not obeying road signs
I’m pretty sure it was Nigel Lawson who whacked 20+ pence on a litre of fuel in one of his budgets with a promise to abolish VED the following year. Yet like all politician promises this one failed to materialise too. While the fuel taxes and VED should be ring fenced for transportation matters I think we all know this never happens.
lets do the maths, if you do like one person here, 18000 miles per annum and i’m guessing in car that does about 45 miles to the gallon which is average. so that is about 1800 litres per annum. if HMG slapped 10p per litre on top it would cost them £180 extra but then gain the tax that they would normally pay on the car which is, let say £150. So they are £30 pa out of pocket. Average mileage is about 12,000 per annum so additional cost for Joe or Joess Public will be £120 so saving £30 pa.
I too live miles from anywhere and only venture out when needs must so potential savings for those can be flexible could be good but if you can’t cut your mileage it’s tough but, you do use the roads more.
Can’t you see they will always start if with low prices, then after a while they will charge you more than your road tax per year, are you foolish? Do you really trust them that much…? You need to wake up.
Simple answer get yourself a cheaper car with less VED. If you are paying that much a year it must an expensive fuel guzzler in the first place.
Simple, Use the mileage recorded at MOT or sale of car to charge per mile.
Simple, but let’s face it if you think you’re going to get hit with a bill for a few hundred quid extra when you take it for an MOT some people won’t be able to afford it in one hit and this would result in the amount of cars on the road without an MOT to spike making the roads potentially more dangerous! If it’s charged at the pumps then it’s a fair system but the thieving lying twaits in parliament will only keep putting the prices up, caning the poor motorist again.
If you drive a tank you expect to pay £400 you already pay per mile in the high tax on the fuel £1 tax approx. the larger the car the more tax you should pay small car’s if this was to come in should pay less than 4×4 tank’s that rip the road up more and pollute more where do you stop?
the other issue is, that if the government and/or the climate organisations want to limit car use, there should be a functional alternative, i.e. good working public transport system. I live about 4 miles from a village, where there is a VERY limited bus service.
Always remember, Governments are crooks. They will steal your money at every opportunity.
They continually force things upon you, that you don’t want.
That’s so very true, it’s all about government making money & wot do they do with it ????
i was once told ‘dont steal. the government dont like the competition’
Like a perv in a bush
Those who do more miles already pay more as they purchase more fuel 75% of which is in the form of tax.
Pricing per mile is just another way of squeezing more out of the motorist.
Failure to invest enough in public transport by successive governments over the last 40 years means that most people have little or no alternative than use their car.
Why should people who use the road less pay the same road tax as people who use the road more. Extensive use is causing more wear and tear on the roads. Paying for more usage makes more sense to me. It’s not fair to expect others who use the road less to subsidise those who use the roads more. Want this comment is saying I want people to subsidise my use of the road because I don’t agree with the governments road tax system. Maybe he could devise a fairer a system.!
Doesn’t, actually, at least not as far as cars are concerned. I’ve designed roads, and you design it based on an assessment of how many heavy vehicles are likely to use it per week – even if it’s only the bin lorry once a week…
https://bettertransport.org.uk/blog/better-transport/lorries-cause-more-damage-roads-cars
the tax mostly never gets spent on the roads anyhow, its just stealth taxation
I also live ‘out in the sticks’ in rural Somerset with no bus service. Our narrow roads are breaking up so badly now BUT not by tax paying vehicles. Giant tractors who pay No tax use red diesel & have no mileage restriction. Now you know why there are so many of them.
Agree re Giant Tractors and Trailers (and giant delivery vehicles) which damage our lanes with huge potholes, often camouflaged as full of water, and they also mash up verges in our North Yorkshire lanes. Tractors travel far more miles than they used to as farms are larger and more spread out.
legally they can only travel within a 1km radius of the farm, if memory serves me, but nobody ever bothers about that
Let’s all just buy tractors.. problem solved.
I’m all for this but my lease car includes VED. Will they give me a refund?
I doubt it, they’ll be laughing to the bank
My husband is disabled and our old private car that we had for over 10 years we did not have to pay VED because he is on DLA. but if we had to it would have cost £400 per year. It was not a gaz guzzler, it was a simple Suzuki Grand Vitara which suited to get a wheelchair in. However, the emissions failed 2 years running, one year costing over £400 but we kept it as it was very useful for our circumstances. However, we decided to get rid of it after 2 failings as we knew it would finally fail completely the following year. So now we have signed up for a mobility car. By leasing this, it means my husband loses his total mobility DLA but it means we have an economical car and fits all the criteria for my husband. But of course we do not had to pay for the VED so by adding a cost on to petrol for mileage will mean our running costs will be so much higher, that we won’t be able to do the trips that we are used to. We would have to cut back as the running costs would be so much higher. Plus the fact that we live in a rural area and do not have the adequate bus services.
So again, will the Government refund the additional cost of petrol to us as this is discrimination to make us pay for having our vehicle?
I am disabled and need to go to specialist hospitals for my conditions and some are a 400 mile round trip and regular trips over 150 miles each week. Public transport cannot support my needs and I have to be driven to make regular stops. I worked all my life that I could and pay VED and all other costs. Fuel has enough tax on to pay my mileage and I can’t afford an electric vehicle. I would vote against paying per mile as my trips out are my life savers.
I agree about tax per mile, I have said since I was 18 now I’m 61, it is a much fairer way. The only problem is disabled drivers who depend on motor vehicles for mobility and independence who are currently car tax exempt.? I suggest a card that they could produce to have tax reduction.
Totally agree with your comment.
Introduce toll roads for all major motorways as per most of Europe thus also charging foreign users of our roads.
Agree with Robert,
Whilst a rather good idea, it will force trucks through villages again and along the smaller A roads, I drive in Portugal a lot and see a lot of this the smaller roads being used as “rat runs” for HGV’s not wanting to pay tolls.
Perhaps there could be a fixed charge for foreign vehicles as they enter the country? There is no way everyone can be satisfied, whatever decision government make but clearly, it is an issue requiring extensive debate and capable minds to design an intelligent solution which Government must engage with. It should not be a party political or referendum decision.
We are all going to have to make big life changes.
Introduce the Swiss system for all foreign vehicles passing through their borders. It is necessary to by a permit (vignette) which can be bought on line or at the border. Simple, fair and easy to administer.
The Swiss vignette is for all vehicles wanting to use the Swiss motorways – including those vehicles belonging to Swiss residents.
That’s where it all falls over E.M.N., you used the words Government, capable minds & intelligent solution in the same sentence. These qualities don’t exist in the current Government, they don’t even exist in the opposition parties!!! Even if the Government came up with the best solution ever which would keep everybody happy (ha ha that’s never gonna happen!), the opposition would never agree to it just to be awkward!
Especially to charge the European and Irish trucks using Britain as a road bridge.
Foreign trucks have two pannier tanks and some have belly tanks carrying up to 250 gallons of fuel so that they do not have to buy fuel in this country and contribute to our economy. They should be allowed a restricted amount, over which they should be made to pay tax on the extra fuel. Just like they do in some countries.
Agree no need to charge for road use in rural areas where public transport is non existent
Public transport does not get you to shops supermarkets or anywhere from rural villages in Warwickshire or Northamptonshire let alone cornwall
Try getting around Peterborough without a car either early in the morning or later at night. Plus bus fares are expensive. Private Hire Vehicles are the public transport.
Yes, and if they are bringing in food, well we don’t want that foreign muck anyway…
Yeah.. bloody foreigners coming over here with their trucks and their foreign exotic foods. Make them pay. I’m fine with chips
Road pricing, tolls, they are fundamentally the same thing. Long term, dynamic road pricing taking into account type of road, congestion, time of day, will have to happen – there is no real alternative.
Drivers should be charged for how much they use the roads. That’s only fair. But smaller cars should charged at a lower rate than bigger cars. And the roads themselves should attract pricing ‘discounts’ or surcharges depending on how big/small they are and how congested they are. Additional reliefs in price per mile tariffs should be available in special cases – like an accident emergency or a pregnant woman trying to get to hospital to give birth.
That’s all well and good Lorna but how are we going to police it to that level? In addition, larger cars generally use more fuel so would pay the extra through this alone.
The technology is there to do this. How do you think Google maps knows how busy each road is??? It is using info transmitted from everyone’s phones. Formalise this into an account that charges you and hey presto!
To the answer about rural roads with no public transport options these would be charged at a lower prices than roads in London that follow a tube line. And of course it would be a straightforward extension that people that met certain criteria would be eligible for discounts on the per mile fees.
Your idea might reduce the number of …. people (insert own adjective) using phones on the car.!
They would be paying less because their car does more miles per gallon
The “National Debate” will be a farce and rest assured that whatever We say/want, the Government will completely ignore us as usual and load yet more tax on us to satisfy their appalling greed fed by gross inefficiency.
I was issued with a bus pass as I had my driving licence evoked due too health reasons. Unfortunately the public services were reduced so much and time tables altered and would have made me late for work by 1/2 an hour. Also when they were running they were never on time or a scheduled time had been taken off for that day. I was forced to depend on my wife driving me to and from work and from work home which totalled 64 miles a day.
If they want to reduce traffic they need to look at the whole infrastructure of public transport and make sure all public transport is more reliable and enough vehicles to cover the need.
They could look to other countries like Taipei Taiwan and Warsaw Poland, having had the privilege of visiting and using public transport in these countries are first class. You can tell the time by their schedule. It use to be like this in the 60s and 70s, we knew it was time to go to school because the buses had gone down the road.
That is the only way forward if the government truly wants to reduce congestion and improve the environment….and not use drivers as an easy revenue fund raiser!!!
What about the Motorhome which does 3,000 miles each year or the classic car which does 1,000 would these be exempt?
as the owner has his day to day vehicle or do we have to give up our lives ?
If the charges come in everyone pays including electric vehicles buses lorries Anyone that’ uses the road
So cycles should be included as it’s not a tax for emissions is it!
Next will be VED on shoes. Those of us with larger feet will have to pay more.
The tax is currently based on emissions (hence why electrical cars are 0), and cycles have even less emissions, so cyclists should be paid per mile 🙂 🙂
I have a car that cost £565 a year to tax which covers no more than 500 miles p.a. and a 4×4 3L diesel which I need for work which covers 18,000 miles £160 Road tax🤔 ludicrous!!!
How does a 4 x 4 3L cost £160?
Could be a classic, so is tax exempt if over 40 years old.
Your choice. So who is being ludicrous?
Given the fact that we as road users and contribute over £40 billion to repair the. Roads why are they in such a poor state.
Because the revenue collected is not spent on the roads
Introduce motorway tolls like on the continent.
Make roads safer by introducing increased penalties for bad driving, and breaking speed limit if going over 5 miles an hour over the top of road speed limit.
To fairly introduce VED public transport would have to be improved greatly.
We have to attend regular hospital appointments, and it would take 3 buses to get to hospital as long as it’s in the morning. But could only get half way back if after 2pm as the last bus is at 2pm! Which means a taxi home !
The sick and elderly often have no option but to drive.
Some people have to drive miles to get to work , then pay for expensive car parking, but need their car during the day for work related trips. Public transport would be impossible in situations like this.
If they introduced VED, it may lead to people, thinking it’s not worth it, and lead to them giving up working, staying home, and claiming benefits instead !
I agree something has to be done, but a lot more thought has to go into it.
Introduction motorway tolls would only move traffic onto nearby less suitable roads: tolling only works if there are no alternatives, so the logical solution would be to toll *all* roads. I favour a time-based system: if you drive for 1 hr then it costs you the same if that’s 3 miles in city traffic or 70 miles on a free-flowing motorway – of course this would have to be in conjunction with speed controls.
Would this mean that the zero charge cars ie electric will also have to pay per mile if so I’m all for it as i only drive 2000 3000 miles per year and i have to fork out £350 a year in ved the government have shot themselves in the foot by reducing ved on some cars
Great….it’s ok for those that live in or near big towns or cities.. I live in Cornwall where we don’t have supermarkets/ shops/ medical facilities on our doorstep and don’t have anywhere near a good public transport network!! Why don’t they tax cyclists – that would bring more revenue in!
Will the government then reduce the exorbitant tax we Brits pay on our fuel price or will we continue to pay this tax along with the price per mile??
Fine in the urban areas but What about the rural areas where there is little or no public transport. It needs to be an integrated approach and that means investment in additional and better public transport rather than just a flat rate charge.
There is no “climate emergency” it’s all BS – there is only 0.04% CO2 in the atmosphere of which the Earth itself creates 97% – This is just another cash grab as usual and all part of Agenda 2030 – wake up people FFS you’re all being played and falling for it
Also as a side note: CO2 is needed for plant life to live, if we continue to remove or even decrease CO2 plant life will die and then so will we. This whole demonisation of CO2 is a complete farce. We need MORE CO2 as it is the gas of LIFE!!
Better stop destroying the rain forest then as we will need plant life to soak up the Co2 we’re producing. There’s already not enough plant life to save us again that’s why we’re in this mess. You’ve just proved my point. Global temperature is on the rise we’ll need bee’s to pollinate the plants but bee’s are in decline and crops are dying so think again AnonUK.
“Gas of life” have you tried breathing it? No taste, no smell but fatal. Had your boiler checked recently to check for the gas of life being produced?
What a idiot.
CO (carbon monoxide) kills you not CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) and is a natural product of human and animal respiration and is required for plant life.
Thanks Robin, you got in there first, your science is sound although i would add that if you tried to breathe CO2 you would quickly become intoxicated, your breathing would slow down and you would die from Hypoxia due to lack of oxygen in the blood. It is a danger when you are SCUBA diving or travelling in a submarine with defective air scrubbers.
Just saying!
@AnonUK, it’s this exact attitude that has gotten us in this mess. A close friend of mine spent 18 months in Antarctica and I can confirm to any disbelievers that the ice is melting at an alarming rate which means sea levels are rising but more importantly is the amount of Co2 that is being released from the ice perpetuating global warming to a point of no return. So wake up because we all need to work together to slow this down or there will be no human race to worry about VED.
BTW, the planet will be fine, it’s life we’re fighting for.
Agreed. And although it’s half a world away we need a solution to the damage being done to our oceans particularly in 3rd world countries. Sharks, dolphins, turtles, tuna and other sea life are being wiped out as the by product of bad fishing practices. Poverty, ignorance and greed are the main factors. Somebody somewhere MUST find a solution to this.
the solution is nuclear power, I bet you hate that though don’t you?
How do you know this for sure, none of us do, its all guess work, I don’t disbelieve the poles are melting, but how can you be sure its our fault and not just a natural warming and cooling cycle, go back thousands of years there was a thing called the ice age are you sure we are not coming to end of that cycle, nobody is 100% sure, as none of us have seen it before nor documented it, it’s just plain guess work, but in the mean time a great way to rip cash out of people using fear. there are just as many scientists and web sites with facts that can prove this is natural for the earth so for every government scientist telling us it our fault there is a non government one telling us its natural behaviour for a planet, the argument is not the fact it is warming up but WHY? And I am afraid most of us on here wont be around to find the real truth, when next ice age hits us.
I urge you to consider the following – https://www.iceagenow.com/We_are_now_in_a_low_CO2_period.htm – we are in a low CO2/Low temperature period, the climate is changing but it always has even before man set foot on this planet.
No matter how much effort we put into reducing CO2 the planets cycle will defeat it.
the point of no return the Earth has passed many hundreds of times according to the ice core records your friend must know all about because “he went to Antarctica”.
Did he also tell you ice-core samples cannot tell you decadal CO2 concetrations due to diffusion between layers before compaction happens?
This means that those samples wouldn’t even show previous spikes like the one currently happening if the concentrations dropped in subsequent decades. Just something to be aware of when you might be tempted to declare we’ve never seen an increase in CO2 like this before….
That’s ridiculous charge per mile if you drive 100 miles a day 6 days a week who can afford that be realistic
Its Utopia….. None of us will work, we will all stay at home what every you need will be delivered to your door step by electric computerised vehicles, all we do is sit, eat and watch telly, never move out side in case it upsets the environment. EXCELLENT, isn’t it? MMMMmmm I don’t think so.
Also like to know off topic how all these extinction rebels actually got to London, did they do it the ECO why and walk?
Plant more trees everywhere that will absorb pollution stop building everywhere as global warming increases
Electric cars are not the answer as cost to mych to build and charge up with limited use also impacting a meltdown with electricity soaring. National grid wont cope with it theres your global warming ………….
Great idea from an overpaid underworked and probably very polluting MP. Come back to me when India, China the USA and all the other big polluters have made significant steps in reducing their pollution then I’ll consider myself what else I can do. Until then piss off. We already pay more than our fair share to drive on our roads. We are taxed to the hilt at every opportunity by our government (unless of course you happen to be very wealthy and can benefit from every tax dodge under the sun). They don’t want to help the environment, they want to help themselves to more of our hard earned cash. But if they must introduce the pay per mile then get rid of fuel duty and vat on fuel. I’m not paying for the same thing twice and I hope all other motorists will feel the same. If this is even so much as raised we should have a mass protest, block the roads and bring the country to a standstill. Then get everyone to leave the car at home for a week just to see the chaos that will ensue as we all try to get to work by public transport lol.
The climate change emergency is a myth. Designed by governments to implement carbon tax and also result in the tracking of vehicles. All part of the UN Agenda 21 programme to control the people, aided and abetted by the government and the media. Those in rural areas no longer able to afford their own transport will have to move into the cities where they can be watched by facial recognition cameras under government control. The time of the car will be ending soon.
Not sure about this. I have 2 classic cars, one of which is exempt from road tax, a 4×4 and a sports coupe. The classics rarely move anyway, and I only do about 3000 per year with the coupe and 3000 per year with the 4×4, so I potentially could benefit, but it’s a risky thought, because I’d assume you’d be charged via the emissions, so if you have a nice luxury V8, but only do 2000 miles per year, you might be paying more ( or less) than an electric car that does 10,000 miles per year. It’s an intriguing concept.
Pay per weight of vehicle + miles travelled… that way the heavier vehicles which put more of a strain on our roads pay a higher rate than the smaller city cars. Lorries would of course pay more. Including a charge for miles travelled per year would allow everyone to carry on about their business in rural and urban areas. The people most affected would be the heaviest road users – who are actually causing the most damage to our roads.
Yep and up goes all your food, travel costs on busses, delivery charges on goods delivered to your house.
We know that the £40 billion raised does little to help the poor quality of our road system; so why would a new charging regime be any different other than raise more revenue for the government to fritter away. Also, how would the huge number of foreign vehicles pay for the use of the UK roads? Currently, do they pay the current tolls ~ eg Dartford crossing or are they having a free ride? We often have to pay for the use of roads in Europe.
Typical government mentality, look at the railways brilliant engineering but left to decay as government (no mater who) thinks it will take care of itself now its in a hell of a state, why would our roads be any different, they decided to “repair” them with a slurry and chipping mix which was awful chipped your car to bits and you just slid around on it after a few months it all lifted, excellent waste of public money, we never look after anything just throw cash at it when it breaks.
The fairest way is to scrap VED completely and instead add a few pence to each litre of fuel. This would have the following benefits:
1. ALL vehicles on the road would be paying road tax – even the foreign lorries and cars.
2. It would be completely proportional: the more you drive, the more you pay.
3. Staff at DVLA who collect VED could be redeployed or let go further reducing costs.
The easiest solution by far.
Ok, just had a quick calculation using the 0.2p per mile on un-congested road, which is where I do most of my motoring. Would double my road tax, so, it’s a bad idea unless it’s something like 0.1p a mile. If I lived in the city, it would not be worth owning a car and working.
This would penalise people living in rural areas. I have recently retired, so I’m no longer travelling to work, but others do. My nearest supermarket is 10 miles away and I go once a week to shop for both me and my parents. My very elderly parents live 5 miles from me and I visit them regularly. There are no buses between our villages, and even if there were they would be no use in an emergency. I also travel to do ‘Grandma duty’ at my daughter’s once a week – again no buses. My car is my lifeline, without it I couldn’t go to Zumba, my dance classes or other social activities. I have a free bus pass which is useless as our bus service is virtually non existent. Charging travel by the mile woud bring unknown and no doubt rapidly rising costs for everyone who lives in rural areas.
Stay with the existing system.
If “they” start to charge per mile in a couple of years “they” will increase charges each year for per mile and VED and fuel duty. It will just be another money raiser .
Of course they will bring it in, only a matter of time, there is going to be a massive hole in government revenue from the loss of fuel tax as they push us over to electric, they wont get away with pushing up electric prices to cover that drop so how else can you do it, they get their fuel tax by MPG of each of our cars due to us having to refuel for what ever journey we take and how ever we drive it, what’s average distance on a EV around 250 miles, which means most of us can drive to and from work for free, at present we can’t as we use either petrol or diesel both taxed, both needed to run that vehicle, we will fill our tanks anything from once a month to once a week dependant n where work is now if you swap out your present vehicle for an EV when are you going to fuel that up? – NEVER instead its going to be plugged into your house so where does the fuel duty come from for that? Would not be surprised if they run both as it will push the IC engines off the road a lot quicker.
Actually, thinking about it, I bet right now, there’s a few techno geeks sat in the bedrooms thinking about how to bypass any device or black box that would identify where you are or how your mileage is recorded. Once that’s cracked, hey presto, a hidden switch in the cab, and bingo, tax free motoring.
Wrap it in tin foil😁
Why not add a reasonable amount to fuel so that those who use the roads more, pay more. Also, it wouldn’t be too difficult to add a small amount to cover a basic insurance so that everyone is covered.
We already pay more tax on the more fuel we use therefore we are already charged on our usage or mileage we cover
Just one reason why we need to get rid of this wasteful government. Instead of taxing the motorist even more, why don’t they cut down on government waste and unnecessary government spending? They could start to tax their rich friends more or even make them pay a more reasonable amount , people like Amazon and their like. Leave the less well off alone, not to mention the Disabled who rely on their vehicles to get around
And get rid of hs2
I’ve been saying for years now that having to pay per mile would be much fairer than the VED charges levied. However, the proposed costs muted now would be extortionate in the extreme, especially given the already extortionate cost of fuel. And does it actually pay for our roads, a big NO for that answer, just more tax on an easy pray is my opinion!
.Electric vehicles do not pay VED they are zero rated. They do not pollute the atmosphere but will still have to pay this pollution/mileage tax
are you sure electric cars do not pollute the atmosphere? where is electric produced oh I remember at power stations massive pollution
Electric cars have to use generated electricity and they also damage the road like any other car of a similar sizr or weight.
I don’t understand why is there such a rush towards ev’s. We haven’t found a way of safely producing the batteries, in the first place, just the production/transportation process of those batteries actually pollutes the environment a lot more than major automakers in the EU. On top of that, if your ev gets anywhere close fire, you better find a way of teleporting out of the car… Also, the most important thing – we have not found a way of recycling those batteries. But hey, we have electric cars, nobody really cares about the details, we have electric cars!
Hi, the system is completely wrong, and the people at the top don’t know how to implement a fair system.I would like to point out a few facts, you can dismiss it like the BBC has , transport for London has, but people don’t like the truth, so let’s begin.
In the early seventies and eighties (as an x bus driver ) we had vehicles that were doing 14 miles per gallon, but don’t quote me on emissions, but say for argument that a vehicle for every one gallon used it put out 20% emissions, then along came some one who says wait a moment we have to reduce these by say 10% . So Volvo the biggest engine supplier brings out a cleaner engine that reduces the emissions, but reduces the mpg, to 6 mpg, so what happens, well the emissions rise, but cos the emissions are reduced per gallon, so the vehicles kick more shit out, and if you idiots don’t believe me start asking around
May I also point out that if all my travelling is by B roads does that mean I won’t pay much..? Can see where that’s going to lead to.
And the real problem with this is …..
Another Government IT project.
Now do you want the Good News or the Bad News?
Good News – They will never get it to work!! 🙂
Bad News – You will still have to pay for it. 🙁
low user too. I probably fill up with about £25 of petrol a month, a bit more if we travel away. Seems fairer to pay any tax with the quantity of petrol, but then we are already paying tax on that now. The big worry is will this be a means to really up the road tax amount we are already paying like when the oil goes up around holiday travel times as you can bet it will not go back down again. What we may gain in one hand may end up being in built up areas a lot more with the traffic jams and engines running so in a way even out with the isolated routes concern of fairness
I agree that a per mile charge is much fairer than the current licence charges – those who do the most miles and thus wear out the roads more should pay more than those who only do a few thousand miles a year.
The MOT also needs to be geared to mileage not age, my wife’s car only did 4000 miles in the first 3 years whereas I know of people who do 18000 miles or more a year. The MOT should kick in at every 12000 miles – the average for one years motoring according to statistics I believe.
Every tax ever invented penalises those least able to afford it especially when invented by a socialist government.
This will hit those living in remote rural areas the most. The sort of areas that politicians forget about.
So which government invented the annual fuel cost increase regulation? I’ll wait.
Why not pay per mile? In principal it sounds fair, but many live out in the country where there is little if any public transport and a drive to the shop can mean a 20 mile round trip, same for work etc. There would need to be a weighted system to balance out where the driving is done. Also, the current duty on petrol discourages inefficient cars, millage payment may not.
What about bikes bicycles etc the number is increasing and take space away from people who use and pay to use roads bikes pay nothing let them pay tax and insurance then the government would get more money they would not get involved or cause so many accidents and maybe they would not ride like idiots not stopping at junctions etc.
Let all of us pay whatever the mp’s pay also receiving the allowances that they receive then maybe we will get a honest and fair way forward.
We pay but don’t get the roads we pay for now this will turn out to be another tax giving government’s more cash to waste while the roads get worse and public transport declines
Tax cyclists for use , they don’t pay for cycle lanes yet whinge about wanting to use the roads
What is wrong with the current VED system, all they need to do is adjust the amounts to suit, So electric contraptions including motability scooters which are becoming more prevalent on our roads are then paying towards the road upkeep, the same with the fossil fueled low level Of £0, could also be increased to say £25.
The £0 VED was introduced to encourage people to use greener vehicles and was widely accepted, but come the sudden urge to change entirely to electric is fuelling a panic change.
Electric vehicles are still to expensive and will continue to be so for quite some time.
What about HGV vehicles, will there be super chargers every few miles on the roads so they can re charge to continue there journeys as the amount of batteries required to run a HGV for a 400 to 500 mile round trip be put the carrying capacity of the vehicle down meaning a possibility more HGV;s on the road
Tax per mile is a very good idea as those that use the road a substantial amount will therefore pay more whilst those of us that do a modest amount of mileage will pay less, but it will also mean at long last all those continental vehicles will also be paying for the upkeep of our roads which they currently don;t
The only down side will how fair they are with there charges and how they obtain it, the fairest way would be to add it the fuel duty at the pumps, which will then mean those who drive without VED or insurance would be contributing too at long last
Foreign HGVs fill up their HUGE (250-350 litre) fuel tanks in Europe so that they never need to refuel in this country thereby avoiding paying any taxes for using our roads.
Similarly our HGV’s that work abroad a lot fill up abroad to avoid paying UK fuel prices.
What about having a small charge for cycles using the road and making cyclists have insurance. If a cycle runs into a vehicle the motorists insurance has to pay all costs regardless of fault resulting in increased insurance premiums for the motorist. Cyclists riding in pairs often also lead to congestion increasing fuel emissions and accidents due to frustrated drivers trying to get past.
There shud be a flat rate on top off the fuel you buy wen you fill up. So that means if petrol was £1.25 you wud pay say £.27 a litre. So the people who use the roads the most pay there fair share for the maintenance of eds because there the ones who are wearing them out the most.
More affordable public transport is needed. Also moving shops closer to where people live rather than forcing people to get into cars to travel for shopping. The government are to blame for the planning of where ships have been moved to. This has caused trouble for pensioners who do not drive.
Most of my journeys are on a very congested coast road and a few other highly congested roads …this is due to the fact that over the years most roads that i would use (and do significantly less miles) have been made no entry, dead end, one way etc. So if there was a mileage charge based on the congestion of the roads this would be even more painful as i could reduce many miles from my journeys if roads were all useable again. I hate sitting in traffic going places that i dont want to go just so as i can then double back and get to where i need to be. I also have some local roads that are considered Private and are closed with gates costing me up to about 6 miles per journey .
I also hate the idea that big brother will no exactly what roads im on also where and when im going !
Awful idea !