DRIVERS face paying for a raft of crippling new toll charges under Labour plans to hand new powers to private firms.
Ministers are understood to be considering plans to allow private companies to charge drivers on roads to help bankroll road repairs.
Labour will give private firms the power to impose tolls on the public to fund road projects Credit: Getty
The move has been branded a ‘sly’ way of introducing yet another road tax Credit: Feifei Cui-Paoluzzo
The new plans would see firms allowed to introduce tolls on existing roads where they complete upgrades, as well as newly-built schemes.
It means drivers could be charged in future for driving on roads they currently use for free.
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Labour argue the plans could fund road repairs the public cannot afford to, critics fear greedy firms will bleed drivers dry and impose a “wild west” of tariffs.
Others highlight that Brits already fork out £35billion in road tax and Fuel Duty every year to fund road projects.
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The proposal was revealed during the Highways (Financing) Bill on September 10 on the Department for Transport’s website.
The Bill would in theory introduce a licence scheme, enabling private firms to recover costs for road maintenance projects with new tolls.
It would also allow them to install more number plate recognition technology to snag any toll-dodging drivers.
The move will no doubt grate with those on the Labour left who favour state-owned infrastructure over private sector investment.
But the Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has defended the scheme as a “well-established” model in a letter seen by The Mail.
Citing the Thames Tideway Tunnel sewage project as an example, she said: “In drafting this legislation we have applied the lessons learned from those projects to enable the model to work even better in the roads sector.”
The proposal sparked immediate backlash, with the shadow transport secretary Richard Holden blasting it as a “stealth tax”.
He said: “Labour is trying to slyly slip out plans for charging for road use – on top of their plans to raise Fuel Duty and for pay per mile – with no though as to even capping what could be charged while potenitally creating a wild west of punitive new charges.”
Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice said Labour is “waging a war” on motorists and working families.
It follows a slew of “anti-car” measures since Labour came to power, including the rise of 20mph zones catching oblivious drivers off guard.
The Government also announced a pay-per-mile levy for electric and hybrid vehicles last November and is set to introduce a Fuel Duty tax in the New Year despite pump price’s already escalating costs.
Parking tickets could rise by more than double outside of London, the Mail revealed in July, soaring to £160 under new proposals.
Councils across the country have already hiked penalties in an effort to boost their coffers, with workplace parking spaces given as another potential target.
New low emission zones have led to alienating penalties on older cars, in yet another thinly-veiled tax scheme.
According to date unveiled this week, one in four households in Englad do did not own a car last year, the highest rate in a decade as drivers wrestle with soaring costs and multipling penalties.
