Blue is the colour

13th May 2004, Page 24

13th May 2004

Page 24

Page 25

Page 24, 13th May 2004 — Blue is the colour

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Brian Weatherley has asked the Shadow Transport Secretary for some election pledges

on transport... just in case the Tories ever win.

It's been said, somewhat cruelly, that the Department for Transport is the proverbial "departure lounge" for politicians climbing up, or sliding down, the greasy pole of political stardom. Right now Tory Shadow Transport Secretary Damian Green is standing outside the lounge, hoping to get in.Whether he (or any of his colleagues) lands the top job at Marsham Street depends on the outcome of the next general election and the great British public.

In the meantime, we've come to Portcullis House, the smart office complex for MPs in Westminster to hear the Tory take on transport. Action plan

With British operators paying the highest rates of diesel tax in Europe, and only Austrian and Swedish truckers paying more in VED than their counterparts in the UK, we are all keen to know how a Conservative government would help the industry.

"What we want to do is reduce the total burden on business," says Green, rather predictably, before adding: "I'd love to sit here today and give you Oliver Letwin's first budget—but I think Oliver might have a word or two with me ill tried to do that!"

However, while insisting that "I can't go into specific tax rates," Green does say: "Absolutely central to a Conservative government would be a desire for British businesses to maintain prosperity — including the transport industry. And that requires a range of issues from the basics of the tax burden that they're paying, to the use of the road network, and the ability to negotiate a level playing field with European competitors."

If a Conservative government is elected, says Green: "I think the other thing that people will notice is the disappearance of the prejudice against road use that does seem to permeate this government."

While some readers might find Green's comments on the tax burden hard to swallow, after all, it was a Conservative government that launched the infamous fuel escalator that eventually led to the fuel protests of 2000, the Tories' transport shadow puts up a robust defence for it.

According to Green, when Chancellor Ken Clarke originally launched the escalator, "We had among the lowest fuel prices in Europe and what you do when you get to the top of an escalator is to get off. What this government did was extend it. They got [to the top of] the escalator and then they carried on further until they ran into this brick wall that was the fuel protest."

What's more, Green insists, had the Conservatives remained in office they would have got off the escalator long before New Labour, which, of course, is easy to say in hindsight: "We'd always planned to. We said it was in for a certain amount of time and then it would stop. Gordon Brown chose, as part of an explicit 'high-tax/high-spend' agenda, that this government has always had to carry on with it.

"If you want to avoid things like the fuel tax escalator in future then you've got to take the tough decisions on the other side.We're not going to promise to spend more and more in every area in life, otherwise you'll end up with a tax crisis which is what the government's facing." Meanwhile, Green reports that when it comes to reducing the environmental impact of HGVs,"any fuels that do produce CO2 or other

emissions are going to be taxed", although he adds: "You can use the tax system to encourage people to use less polluting fuels."

That "encouragement" could include tax incentives like the old Reduced Pollution Certificate system to stimulate the early adoption of cleaner Euro-4 engines before the mandatory compliance date. "Certainly as a principle encouraging people to move as fast as possible to less polluting vehicles is something we'd support," he confirms. We could also be in line for more toll roads it seems. Regarding the Conservative ethos of minimum state intervention and privatisation, Green is firmly on-message, declaring the Tories have "no prejudice against new road building — we think there are lots of places that need new roads and bypasses, and one of our in-depth policy 'looks' is at better and more

creative use of private finance so we get them built."

Ditto annual MoTs for HGVs: "There's no reason in principle why properly registered truck dealers shouldn't be able to do this type of testing. We'd certainly look at that." Fear and doubt

As the local MP for Ashford in Kent, Green has witnessed at first hand the Continental invasion, and he's dubious about Labour's current plans for HGV road charging: "The delay until 2008 shows again the technological difficulties and makes me wonder, perhaps a bit cynically, whether the government is telling the truth when it says that the Lorry Road User Charge is all about levelling the playing field between us and our European competitors. If that's the case, there are simpler ways of doing it."

According to Green: "Given that every lorry that comes into this country has to be on a ferry or on a train it can't be beyond the wit of man to find out what the mileage is when they arrive at this country, find out what the mileage is when they leave this country and then make some sort of charge on the basis of mileage used."

All-in-all, Green believes, it's a missed opportunity: "What seems to me clear now is that if the technology is not going to be ready till 2008 at least—and who knows whether that won't get delayed further—then the government ought to be looking at alternative non-technology based solutions if they're sincere about that. "We may want to find ways to help the domestic industry by looking at achieving the level playing field — without necessarily having to wait for new technology to work." •