Road tolls

[Ringmaster]

Hello again folks,

I read that the government is seriously thinking about introducing a pay as you drive system as they foresee a £40 billion financial shortfall from VED and fuel tax with the predicted increase of electric vehicles!!!

Each time such a scheme has been proposed it has been rejected by the public but this time the government is facing a financial loss if they do nothing, so it is believed they will try to introduce it.

A recent report by the Tony Blair Institute () has suggested the government acts now as the time as never been better and it will be difficult to tell drivers used to paying lower/zero VED than others that they must pay a higher rate...

I for one am not a fan of this as I don't trust the methods they would have to use to enforce it, such as fitting black boxes to each car etc. Who can trust technology to get things right and what safeguards will there be if it goes wrong and drivers are charged incorrectly via a technical error or fraud? Just look at the hassle if Dart Charge goes wrong...

Life is just getting too complicated...

There is a suggestion we would be charged according to mileage recorded when we have our MOTs. Fine, but there will need to be a simple way of ensuring DVLA is notified when a vehicle changes owners.

The government says they don't want anyone to be paying more than they would be under the current system, so let's hope they keep the per mile rate very cheap.

I for one have already emailed my MP to let my views be known as this measure is not being widely publicized and will probably be sneaked in after the next election. If you disagree with it I urge you to do the same.