Government Urged to RUSH Pay-Per-Mile Charges on ALL Drivers ASAP!

UK Labour Government under pressure to introduce road-user charging to fill financial black hole

Right, so the government, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that what we really need is yet another way to tax the poor, put-upon and downtrodden British motorist.

Clearly, the endless barrage of fuel duty, vehicle tax, congestion charges, and parking fines wasn’t enough. Each time we bend over and take it. Now pressure groups reckon they can bend us over further – and pull our trousers down while they’re at it. You all know what happens next!

We’ll soon be paying for the privilege of driving one mile at a time.

This so-called Campaign for Better Transport reckons that since electric vehicle (EV) drivers aren’t buying petrol anymore, they should pay their “fair share” by coughing up for each mile they drive. And, once you’ve got a road-user charging system in place, why stop at EVs? Eventually, it’ll extend to all cars, and naturally, petrol and diesel drivers will pay even more.

Why? Because the government seems to think we all have vaults full of money to toss at their latest tax schemes to fill the financial black hole that they created through the government’s incompetency in the first place.

EV drivers were sold on the dream of a cheaper, cleaner future – no fuel, no emissions, fewer parts to break down, and a smug sense of environmental superiority. Guilt-free motoring. But now, surprise! They’re being made to feel guilty for not paying taxes like the rest of us. The plan is to send them an extra bill every year – and some say this shouldn’t stop with just EVs.

The Treasury is worried about a £5 billion shortfall in fuel duty – and some estimates say it’s closer to £9 billion. But to put this into context, Elon Musk bought Twitter (a virtual app with no tangible assets) for about £33 billion! Just puts the craziness of our world into perspective, doesn’t it?

“EV drivers were sold on the dream of a cheaper, cleaner future – but now, surprise! They’re getting hit with road charges too.”

Anyway, to raise money, the government is being encouraged to go for the tried and trusted method of hitting the motorist. They’ll squeeze drivers until we’re all peddling to work on penny-farthings.

Let’s talk mileage charges. The “average” driver does about 9,000 miles a year. Even at “just” 10p per mile (which sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?) that’s £900 a year – nearly a grand in extra road charges. How much do you pay in VED (Road Tax) right now?

Of course, this will just be the beginning! Heaven help you if you drive anything with a whiff of emissions because they’ll slap you with even higher charges for daring to drive anything remotely exciting. And these rates will inevitably rise year on year, until… what? A pound a mile? Ready to fork out over £9,000 a year just for driving?

They’re telling us this will somehow be “fair.” Fair for who? Certainly not for those who find they have to hand over half our salary just to drive to work to earn it in the first place!

“Fair for who? Certainly not for those of us who don’t fancy handing over half our salary just to drive to work to earn it in the first place!”

So, what happens next? Well, the government hasn’t exactly been shouting from the rooftops about this, which means they’ll probably sneak it into the next budget like those sneaky service charges on your restaurant bill. It’s almost certainly coming – perhaps even sooner than 2026, as I predicted in my book “The ULEZ Files”.

In the end, we’re left with a question: is this just another nail in the coffin for petrolheads? Or is it the future of motoring? Personally, I think it’s both. They’re trying to price us off the road while claiming it’s for our own good.

So, what can you do? One or both of two things. Enjoy every mile you drive now – because soon, each one will cost you. Literally.

And/or make your dissent heard now, raise your voices and object to your freedom of movement being restricted to unjustified additional costs. Do it now before it’s too late.

RAC “Clarifies” Position

Since the Telegraph story using quotes from the RAC to demonstrate its approval of a pay-per-mile taxation scheme, the RAC has put out a statement “Clarifying” its position after stating the report was “inaccurate”.

However the statement concedes that “As more electric vehicles come on to the road, a replacement tax system will be needed to ensure the Government doesn’t lose too much money and that EVs pay for their use of the roads,” which effectively still refers to a road-user charging pay-per-mile taxation system. It just sounds like they’re trying to backtrack after realising how unpopular the notion of pay-per-mile is with most of their members.

Nonetheless, the report accurately stated that the Campaign for Better Transport has written to Reeves as this is stated on their website, and it includes a quote from the RAC: “A pay-per-mile system could be set up according to vehicles’ emissions with EV drivers paying the least to further encourage take-up and ‘gas guzzlers’ paying the most. We believe the Treasury needs to get moving on creating this new system sooner rather than later.”

Here is the RAC statement in full:

“We’d like to clarify our comments about a pay-per-mile tax system following an inaccurate media report which implied we were suggesting an additional tax on drivers.

“As more electric vehicles come on to the road, a replacement tax system will be needed to ensure the Government doesn’t lose too much money and that EVs pay for their use of the roads. We have said consistently that whatever any new taxation system looks like, the most important thing for us is that it’s simple and fair to drivers of both conventional and electric vehicles. We don’t want to see any additional taxation of drivers.

“We’d also like to point out that fuel duty – currently 53p a litre – is already effectively a tax per mile for drivers of petrol and diesel vehicles, the only variable is how fuel efficient a car is. As fuel duty isn’t printed on receipts, it’s not very obvious how much tax we’re paying every time we fill up. At the moment we calculate a driver with a 40mpg car is paying 6p per mile in fuel duty, but crucially this works out to be far more as VAT is then added on top of that and the retailer’s margin.

“There is clearly much work to be done on this which is why we were encouraging the Government to start thinking about it now.”

---

---

Follow all my channels https://linktr.ee/browncarguy

Get my book! https://amzn.eu/d/adFimgB

If you enjoyed this review sponsor my content from as little as £3 at
https://ko-fi.com/browncarguy

Big Thanks to my Supporters!

CraftLab (https://www.CraftLab.my)
Collecting Motors (https://collectingmotors.com)
Design5IT
Tom Conway-Gordon (https://www.instagram.com/anycoloursolongasits_black/)
And others! 🙏🏽☺️