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ROAD PRICING: LEADING SUSTAINABILITY AUTHORITY, WELCOMES THE FINDNGS OF NEW UK REPORT
Feb. 10 2022
With the ongoing transition to a low carbon economy and a potential loss in revenue arising from a move away from fossil fuels to electric vehicles, leading sustainability authority Bureau Veritas has welcomed the conclusions of the Transport Committee’s Road Pricing report.
Released on Friday, February 4 2022, the report states that zero emission vehicles should not mean zero tax revenue; something we are supporting to become the new normal in an economy that has long relied on the revenues from the high polluting oil and gas industries.
Head of Environment & Sustainability
Bureau Veritas
Road user charging has emerged in the UK as a consequence of covering infrastructure costs on high value projects, such as the M6 Toll and M4 Severn Bridge between England and Wales. In turn, it has acted as an enactor of change in vehicle owner behaviour in pollution hot-spots (such as through the London Low and Ultra-Low Emissions Zones and more recently Clean Air Zones), incentivizing those with more polluting vehicles to upgrade to vehicles with lower emissions – helping to resolve issues of poor air quality in our cities.
With The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reporting that one in three new cars joining British roads in January 2022 was electric, an increasing uptake of electric vehicles across the UK highlights the taxation levied on fuel use bought from the forecourt pumps will be lost as EV charging options increase across homes, workplaces and at rapid charging points – including on the forecourt.
With EV owners paying no fuel duty or vehicle excise duty, the Transport Committee report highlights the potential gap in HM Treasury Revenues could stand at some £35bn.
Commenting further, Richard said: “The public may see road user charging as punitive relative to the taxations already in place, but it is down to the Government to ensure any changes are revenue neutral – that is, motorists paying more or less the same levels of tax associated with driving currently, and that this is not misconstrued as new ‘green tax’.
Richard continues: “The existing health burden to the UK of poor air quality is estimated to be in the region of £1.6 billion between 2017 and 2025 as demonstrated by researchers at Imperial College. When levels of pollution fall because of the transformation of the UK vehicle fleet, the benefits to both individual – and the reduction in health burden related to poor air quality – will start to manifest itself.
“When the public start to engage with the notion of road user charging, as will become evident from the conclusion of the Road Pricing report, these wider benefits should be borne in mind.”