New UK government forces senior civil servants to delete road price tweets

Road pricing is controversial worldwide.

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Michael Denness, head of future roads technology at the Department for Transport, was forced to delete a tweet he had written on July 7 in which he had suggested that the new UK government could introduce road charges without any problems.

Apologizing for the deleted tweet, Dnes wrote today: Someone asked me to remove it from the public domain. And since they have two aircraft carriers and a nuclear deterrent, I guess I should do as they asked.

In a deleted thread, Denis joked that discussing such policies would be way beyond his pay grade, and that people like him are there to convey the will of an elected government, not to argue against it.

The topics he discussed have attracted a lot of attention and controversy. In the recent election campaign, the Conservatives accused Labour of planning to introduce road charges and launched hundreds of digital advertisements claiming that Labour would introduce a national ULEZ and a per-mile road charge. Labour denied these claims.

Dnes lightly said that the topic was above his pay grade, but that was not accurate. The introduction of road pricing would involve in-vehicle technology that is relevant to his department. He was also one of the discussants for Miles Better, a paper on road pricing that won the 2017 Wolfson Economics Prize. Dnes also submitted a road pricing entry, Roads to Tomorrow, to the competition.

In a lengthy tweet thread, Dnes acknowledged that politicians hate and fear road tolls.

He pointed out that violating road taxes is not a dangerous thing.

Police fired tear gas and water cannons against “yellow vest” protesters in central Paris in 2018. [+] They are calling on the French president to reverse a tax hike on motor fuel. (Photo: Bertrand GUAY/AFP) (Photo: BERTRAND GUAY/AFP via Getty Images)

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When Macron tried to raise fuel taxes, 30,000 protesters showed up on the first day and two people died. The US hasn't changed its federal gas tax since 1993. The UK government has postponed automatic fuel tax increases every year since 2010… When the UK's first road price report came out (by mistake), the prime minister wrote in the margin of his briefing notes that he would never do it again. When it happened again in the mid-2000s, 1.7 million people wrote letters to the government opposing it.

So, Denis wrote that road tolling was out of the question.

But he added: “I've almost seen it done.”

He writes that he believes road pricing could be introduced with a so-called grandfather clause, i.e. a clause that exempts certain existing classes of people or things from the requirements of the law. In this case, road pricing would be introduced only for existing drivers, but would only apply to new car buyers, including electric vehicles (EVs).

Denes said road pricing is technically straightforward when it comes to new electric vehicles only.

No roadside kit required. No modifications required. Everything you need is already built into the vehicle.

But he warns that this is not an endless opportunity.

He said in a now-deleted tweet thread that when there are few electric vehicles on the road, it's faster, easier and cheaper to just stick with existing cars.

Ultra-fast electric car charging station installed in Whitechapel supermarket car park on December 5… [+] East London, England, 2023. An electric vehicle is a car that is propelled by one or more electric motors using electrical energy stored in a rechargeable battery or other energy storage device. This reduces harmful emissions, making eco-cars an ecologically sound alternative to conventional fuel vehicles. (Photo: Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)

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There is a perfect opportunity to do this. EV sales are high, but there are not many EVs on the road already. Exempting a third of vehicles from the new tax would leave a huge hole in the ground and raise questions about fairness. But other countries, including the UK, France and Germany, are in a good position. There are many EVs on the road, but there are relatively few on the road right now.

Road pricing proposals centered on his grandfather's principles could be politically viable and economically viable, he says, but if they are to be, waiting would make things much more politically complicated.

Britain will certainly be outside that window by 2029, so whatever choice is made, the new government will have to make that decision.

Before deleting the thread, which could embarrass the new government, Denis stressed that whenever officials talk about road pricing, people ask if it is a sign of a secret plan.

He said no.

The old government is gone. The new government cannot make secret plans because they are still looking for where Biro is.

The new government may not have secret plans to introduce road tolls, but it will not be too busy searching for a pen to demand that senior civil servants delete tweet threads that will soon be featured as 'high-level stories' in the right-wing press.

As pointed out in the Dnes thread, such tabloid articles are likely to focus on the overall problem with road pricing rather than the existing provisions, and will not highlight the economic losses the country will suffer if no action is taken.

In 2017, I asked transportation modelers to rerun their big predictions assuming all vehicles would be electrified by 2050, Dnes wrote in a now-deleted tweet.

They calculated that the falling cost of driving would lead Britons to drive 50 billion more miles a year. The obvious answer is to find another tax to keep electric car drivers paying their share. But electric cars don’t use electricity that can be taxed. And purchase tax or registration tax won’t curb congestion. So you need a per-mile fee. And that comes down to road charges.

The idea is to charge a small fee for every mile you drive, much like we effectively do with fuel taxes today.

In a more sophisticated version, you adjust the price so that you pay less on empty roads and more on busy roads. Economists love this idea. In a world where we pay for food, water, and shelter, it seems logical to give up the right to drive down Broadway for free during rush hour. But politicians hate and fear this idea.

On April 15, 2024, a line of new Tesla cars is seen lined up in a waiting area near a customer pickup point… [+] In London, England. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

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But if the fee were only charged to new electric vehicle drivers, there would be no backlash, Denes said.

It turns out that people don't get upset when you tax them for things they don't have. Grandfather's rights are the magic bullet for car taxes. Historically, the downfall of all road tolling systems is when you tell millions of people to pay extra for a trip they don't see as an option.

Existing drivers will remain in place, Deness said.

He predicted that the backlash would be minimal.

There are few people buying new cars. Not enough to create an angry mob, and those who buy new cars are rarely angry. Tax policy is about winners and losers, and don't feel like a loser when you pick up a new key.

He added: People who drive EVs are understandably very concerned about the signs that their untaxed vehicles will start to pay new bills. Passing them down to their ancestors will make that vehicle tax-free forever. Not only will it save them money on taxes, it will also increase the resale value of their vehicles by thousands of dollars.

Because that car can save you that much over the course of your life. The funniest part is that this prize doesn't cost the government a dime. They just promise not to take the money later.

We contacted the Department of Transportation’s press office regarding this article. A spokesperson asked that Dnes’ name be removed from the article.

We've updated the DfT's response to this article.

Sources 1/ https://Google.com/ 2/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2024/07/08/new-uk-government-forces-senior-civil-servant-to-delete-road-pricing-tweet/ The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article

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