Road Pricing

Lord Spellar Excerpts

Thursday 18th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Lord for his question. I absolutely recognise the considerable expertise and experience that he has in this matter—experience and expertise that is probably found right across this House. I do not have specific thoughts on the specific points he raises because, as I say, we have no plans to introduce road pricing.

[Lord Spellar (Lab)]

My Lords, the last question identifies some of the key problems with road pricing. Mention was made of peak-time charging. That may be fine for civil servants and those living in London and the Home Counties, who have a high propensity to travel to work by rail, but the great majority of the rest of the country go to work by car. Those who live in rural areas have to travel long distances for facilities and for work. Those who work in industrial areas, again, quite often because of the location of the work, have to travel by car. There are huge socioeconomic issues here. Quite frankly, it needs to be taken out of the rarefied atmosphere of discussions between think tanks in Whitehall and instead have some common-sense examination involving car drivers.

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am grateful to my noble friend for his question. I agree with a great deal of what he said. As I said at the outset, one of the objectives we must keep in mind is that motoring must remain affordable for consumers. As I say, that is why in the last Budget we extended the temporary 5p fuel cut and cancelled the planned increase in line with inflation, which saved drivers around £3 billion this year. It is why we are introducing a new fuel finder to increase competition between fuel stations and to help drive down prices. As my noble friend rightly says, a well-developed road network cuts transport costs, connects businesses to markets, and unlocks jobs and investment right across regions. That is why at the spending review the Chancellor announced £24 billion of capital funding over this Parliament to maintain and improve both motorways and local roads.