Conservatives promise to build roads
Tim Yeo, the Shadow Transport Secretary, has promised that a future Conservative government would “end the war on motorists” and build new roads.
The focus on road building is the latest strand of the Conservatives’ promise to be a “friend” to motorists. Previously announced policies include reviewing the use of speed cameras and raising the speed limit on motorways.
Mr Yeo told a dinner of the Retail Motor Industry Federation that he would “get Britain moving” with a road building partnership between the public and private sectors.
Citing the M6 tollroad as an example of successful collaboration, he criticised the Government for not building on the initiative, and stated that there is “no reason” why a Conservative government would not move forward on the road network.
He also promised not to increase the burden of taxation on the motorist.
Attacking the Government’s road policy, Mr Yeo claimed “For the past seven years, the Labour Government has been conducting a war on the motorist.
“Under Labour, Britain’s road building programme has ground to a halt. Not a single inch of new road has been added to the UK’s motorway system.
“The result is our roads are more congested than ever before; so congested, indeed, that we seem less like the world’s fourth-largest economy and more like the most inept banana republic.
“And it isn’t as though we’re not paying for improvements. After seven years of the war on the motorist, the burden of taxation borne by your industry and its customers has never been higher.”
He caricatured Labour policy as having “starved our roads of investment” and as a solution “urging us to stay at home and use the Internet, or to improve our physical fitness by riding bicycles.”
Countering likely criticism from environmentalists, Mr Yeo said he is “strongly committed” to the environment and pledged to support new technology to “cut pollution without inhibiting people’s freedom to use their cars.
“The development of new-generation, low-CO2 vehicles, first hybrid and then advanced, is an important priority.”
He suggested that an “imaginative” tax regime could be used to stimulate the production of green cars, for example by having variable rates of VAT on new car prices.
