Written evidence submitted by Dominic McCann (EVP0003)

Road pricing and the move away from fossil fuel vehicles.

It is clear that there is an urgent to move away from fossil fuelled cars and light vehicles (and eventually fossil fuels for HGVs etc). Equally there is a need to ensure that car dependency is not further entrenched by a move to private electric vehicles / cars. At the same time there will eventually be a need to replace the lost revenue from fuel duty as the vehicle fleet becomes increasingly electrified.

In my view the simplest and most equitable initial measure would be to add a annual mileage charge onto each car based on the annual service and MOT records for each vehicle. This would be very simple to enact for all vehicles that already need an annual MOT and it would not be very difficult to add an additional check for new vehicles after 12 and 24 months from registering the vehicle. A suitable charge could start at 2.5p/mile for ALL vehicles including EVs and fossil fuel cars / vans etc. This could be increased to 4.5p/mile for vehicles over say 7.5T in weight. The rate of this mileage charge could then be adjusted incrementally as revenue from fuel duty falls. The mileage charge could also be a measure to encourage public transport and cycling/walking.

Obviously this mileage could be supplemented with specific smart or congestion charging in specific locations and regions, but the simple annual mileage charge would have the advantage of be relatively straightforward to administer and could simply be added to the Vehicle Excise Duty charge.

February 2021