VED reform comment
Government officials are considering introducing a two-tier system of road tax, according to the media.
Press reports suggest a discounted rate would be offered to those people who avoid using trunk roads while other who drive on motorways will pay a higher rate.
A DfT official is quoted in the Sunday Times as saying the Department was looking at a change to VED as part of its ongoing review of funding the road network.
In 2011 the RAC Foundation published a report by former senior civil servant Brian Wadsworth in which he called for exactly such a system.
Responding to the speculation, Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said:
“A transparent, softly, softly approach to reforming motoring tax could work especially if everyone gains something, either better journeys or discounted rates of VED. Ministers would go a long way to restoring trust amongst drivers if the proceeds were ring fenced and ploughed back in to road provision. After all that is what happened with the original road fund licence before it was scrapped by Churchill 76 long years ago.”
ENDS
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