litieal Commentary By JANUS
Page 49
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Killing the Goose
40RE and more desperate become the efforts to break .down the financial barrier that prevents any improvements from being made to the sent road system. Lord Teyn.ham is not the first to pose a long-term loan, but . the debate on road idents in the House of Lords provided1 a well-chosen lortunity for him to suggest that the public should I itself the money for the roads, and pay itself back r a period of several years.
n his reply, Lord Leathers gave no indication of what thought of the idea. He laboured through his brief ; the unwilling victim of a mechanistic chain of :urnstances. The official policy on roads has mnerated into an automatic routine that hopes against )e for something to turn up. Expenditure is allowed h year to a maximum that is at present in the neightrhood of £80m., of which rather more than half has be found by the local authorities.
['he total is not even enough to stop the roads from ting any worse, but once it has been fixed for a year re seems little to be done about it. The occasional ture is on the same scale as the general policy. The ofise by the Government to spend £3m. in two years improving accident blackspots was described subse!fitly by the Economic Research Council as "a mere .en vote and almost derisory," and the epithet seems tified when one calls to mind the estimate that £150m. required to deal with the blackspot problem.
"Earnest Consultation" Lord Leathers was able to tell the House of Lords the ler day that, after "earnest consultation" with ! Minister of Transport and the Chancellor of the chequer, it had been agreed to increase payments from ) Road Fund during the current financial year by Elm. eve the level provided for in the Estimates. "You 11 agree that an extra £1m. is not to be sneezed at," ,rd Leathers added.
A week later the Secretary of State for Scotland )orted to the House of Commons that, in addition to otland's share in the £1m,, there would be a whole tra £1m. spent on Highland roads during the next three ars. No doubt the impression the Government hope make with these piecemeal payments is that there is precise system of priorities which are being methodic y tackled. Unfortunately, the effect is somewhat trred by the fact that neither Lord Leathers nor Mr. mes Stuart was able to say exactly what would be ,ne with the money.
Lord Leathers suggested it would "go some way" wards restoring the cuts on maintenance and minor provement which had been made in the Estimates for e year. In other words, the Government make a reduc)n one day and restore it the next, so that there is I detailed plan. Financial stringency leads to a cut in e Estimates, and the indignation of the exasperated ad user calls forth a compensating grant.
There is almost universal agreement that new and ver roads are required, and there is almost as general :reement on where the roads should be. The 10-year an with which Mr. Alfred Barnes dazzled the House ' Commons before he returned it to its pigeonhole mains the ideal. All that is wanted is the will and the money, and on this theme all that Lord Leathers can do is to reiterate the arguments that are invariably pressed into service, whatever Government may be in power.
It rarely seems to happen that demands for other forms of civil expenditure are fobbed off by references to what has to be spent on the roads. Payments from the Road Fund of £33m. in 1952 fall far below the £50m. invested by the area gas boards and the £150m. invested by the electricity authority. The £3m. to be spent on eliminating blackspots is not much when compared with the approval, following the Harrow accident, of the expenditure of £17m. to make safe approximately 5,000 miles of the main-line railways.
No Other Way.
Last year, the Government sponsored the issue of £120m. of British Transport 4 per cent, guaranteed stock, and it is natural for Lord Teynharn to ask why a similar issue cannot be made on behalf of the roads. Such an expedient should, however, be tried only as a last resort, when it can be proved that there is no other way of raising money.
The interest on British Transport stock, and ultimately the redemption payments, will, if everything, goes according to plan, be paid by the Commission itself. The method adopted may well be the issue of further stock, and there is the Government guarantee as the last bulwark, but the intention remains good. On the other hand, the public would all the way through have to meet the interest charges on the proposed road transport stock, even if the repayment of the capital were left to posterity.
The manceuvre is difficult to justify while such tremendous sums are being taken from the road user by way of taxation. Each year the Treasury wrings from him millions'of pounds more than in the previous year. Rather than take yet more money to meet the interest on the cost of work done on his behalf, it seems so much easier to divert even a fraction of the fuel and licence dues into the Road Fund, from which it can be paid out for the purpose of putting the 10-year plan at last into effect.
The Government can no longer justify taking more money from vehicle operators who are compelled to make increasing use of a road system upon which no more is spent than before. It is too glib a retort that the source of the Exchequer's revenue has nothing to do with the items of national expenditure. There is a reasonably direct ratio between the problem of the roads and the extent to _which they are used by mechanical vehicles. The growth of the problem helps to fill the coffers of the State, but otherwise does harm, directly or indirectly, to every section of the community.
The Chancellor was satisfied, or had to be content, three years ago, with a total of £100m. paid by road users. A year later, it had nearly doubled; in 1952, it was £250m.; this year it may well be £350m. It should be feasible for him to make a bargain with this all-tooconvenient cornucopia, to decide annually how much he wants, and to divert the rest to the building of better roads. By being too greedy, he runs the risk of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.