Road pricing? Good idea but don’t bank on it happening

The chancellor needs new sources of revenue and he’s started to float ideas. Road pricing is a good one but will provoke fierce resistance, writes James Moore

The M6 toll road is a rare example, but motorists have proved resistant  (Reuters)

Chancellor Rishi Sunak needs revenue.

People keep banging on about the current level of borrowing being “unsustainable”, even with interest rates at near zero, and the need to “repair” the public finances in the wake of the pandemic-related spending spree. He appears to be listening.

 With austerity (mercifully) now out of fashion, the only way to do achieve that aim is through raising taxes, preferably after a recovery is firmly established.