RHA Recovery Group says "Give us a break Mr Livingstone"
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RHA challenges Road User Pricing
The Road Haulage Association today challenged the assumption that road user pricing can play a key role in reducing congestion.
Launching a keynote paper at the Commercial Vehicle Show in Birmingham, chief executive Roger King said that hauliers know the need for a more efficient roads network more than any other group. They see the earning power of their lorries reduce year on year.
"But the idea that pricing is the "cure" has been vastly overplayed. Even if it proves technically possible there is no evidence that it will solve the problem. Meanwhile, it will be intrusive and expensive.
"Unfortunately, in selling the idea of road pricing, political spin goes into overdrive. All the political parties seem wedded to the idea of charging in some form as a way of controlling access to the roads.
"But it is a distraction from the inescapable fact that we need a strategic roads programme and to invest more in infrastructure – as the government plans to do in both rail and air, where the need is less urgent.
"We would support tolls – but only on new roads, as a means to getting them built," King said.
"Road pricing should not be confused with congestion charging in cities, which may have a role to play provided that motorists have a genuine public transport alternative. In such cases, it would be wrong to charge trucks.
"We need to refocus the debate on ways to tackle congestion, rather than on a way to tax vehicle users," King said.
The RHA puts forward several suggestions:
- Rethink planning. Allow cities to expand, integrating existing and new public transport.
- Introduce incentives to encourage home working.
- Reduce stamp duty, to encourage people to relocate closer to their work.
King said: "The RHA is the only business representative body openly to express great scepticism about the whole idea of large-scale road pricing. It is not because we are in doubt about the consequences of doing nothing – far from it. "We fear that the solution proposed simply will not deliver the projected results."
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