ePolitix.com Stakeholders comment on the Conservative policy group recommendation on raising charges for foreign lorries using UK roads.

Stakeholder Response: Freight Transport Assoication

To make a comment to the FTA, click here

"The Freight Transport Association (FTA) says that Conservative Party plans to charge foreign lorries to travel on UK roads are welcome and would help to restore fair competition between the UK domestic transport industry and ever increasing numbers of foreign vehicles working in the UK.

"However, FTA says that such a plan must not be used as a stealth tax on UK transport to fund essential road building.

"Such investment must not rely on increased taxation from an already overtaxed UK road transport industry.

"FTA, which represents companies operating over 200,000 lorries – almost half the UK fleet – was reacting to Tory proposals to charge a distance tax for all lorries, both UK and foreign, working on UK roads.

"Under the plan, UK vehicles would be compensated by a cut in fuel duty or Vehicle Excise Duty, so that their tax bill would remain the same.

"Foreign vehicles would therefore begin to pay road taxes in the UK and the money would be used to improve the UK road network.

FTA External Affairs Director Geoff Dossetter said: "The Conservative plan appears to be similar to the Lorry Road User Charge proposed by the government and then scrapped in 2005.

"Such a scheme is attractive because it would charge foreign lorries for using UK roads and help equalise the enormous difference in operating costs between the UK and the rest of Europe, caused by UK diesel being taxed at 48p per litre against an average for the rest of the EU of just 23p per litre.

"However, the UK road transport industry needs a guarantee from the Conservatives that there would be no real increase in the level of taxation on UK commercial vehicles for the foreseeable future.

"The plans to enhance the strategic road network are essential, common sense and ever more necessary as the economy grows and the car population continues to increase.

"Every year millions of man hours and billions of pounds are wasted as a consequence of what is now totally unacceptable congestion on our major trade routes.

"But UK lorry operators are already paying extremely high levels of taxation, well in excess of their foreign competitors.

"A single UK lorry doing 75,000 miles per year delivering the economy pays over £31,000 per year in tax. That enormous burden must not increase."

Stakeholder response: the Road Haulage Association

To make a comment to the RHA, click here

"The recognition of the need for additional road infrastructure is most welcome; but we are more cautious in our response to this renewed enthusiasm for lorry road user charging, however well-intentioned it is in seeking to achieve an urgently-needed levelling of the fuel duties paid by UK and foreign hauliers.
 
"Spending on road improvements to reduce congestion should not be delayed to wait for a speculative lorry charging project.

"The Conservative proposal sounds so far like a re-run of the lorry road user charging scheme announced by Gordon Brown in his pre-Budget statement of 2001 and abandoned in 2005, apparently on the grounds of impracticality and cost.This decision came after heavy research investment, including £40m on consultancy.
 
"We need to understand over what period the headline £10bn from foreign hauliers is to be raised, as there may be issues with EU competition rules.

"More broadly, we are suspicious of an apparent underlying belief that hefty new taxes on road haulage can pay for overcoming congestion; this sentiment is also evident in a recent Liberal Democrat policy statement.
 
"Britain's road hauliers provide a service that is efficient, responsive and vital to the economy. It is also a source of pride that the safety record of our UK fleet is perhaps the best in Europe.

"However, the huge duty difference between the UK and other EU states is a serious problem and getting worse.

"It gives foreign transport firms an unfair competitive advantage, is costing jobs in this country and is adversely affecting the long-term prospects of the UK road haulage sector.

"The need to level the playing field on fuel duty is more pressing than it was when Brown recognised the problem in 2001, and yet not only has nothing been achieved, the series of duty increases that started in November last year are driving in the opposite direction.

"The duty difference will be widened still further on October 1 if the chancellor goes ahead with the planned two pence per litre increase, and other increases are planned for spring 2008 and 2009."

Stakeholder response: Federation of Small Businesses

To send a comment to the FSB, click here

"This scheme was on the table two years ago. We supported it then and we support it now.

"UK lorry drivers should be equally matched against their foreign counterparts and a charge to use the roads would guarantee equality.

"A reduction in fuel duties to compliment this policy would ensure that UK drivers remained competitive - and the government could plough the much needed revenue back into the road network."