The government must introduce tolls on motorways and major roads within 18 months to avoid escalating congestion, an influential committee of MPs warned today.
A report published today by the transport select committee calls for widespread road-user charging via the introduction of tolls on motorways and major roads, compensated by a reduction in car tax and the price of petrol.
Although the transport secretary, Alistair Darling, has said road charging is an issue "we need to consider, we need to debate", the report complains nothing has been done about growing levels of congestion since the 1960s and claims the outlook for motorists is dire.
Although the main thrust of the report claims that, without a change in policy, road congestion will worsen, the Department of Transport appears unconvinced by their fears.
A spokeswoman said: "There are no plans to introduce inter-urban road plans for tolls certainly in the next 10 years."
However, she added: "There are plans to increase road-user charging for lorries, an extension to the road tolls that currently exist on the M6."
The transport committee also warns ministers that charging for the use of motorways alone could lead to unacceptable levels of diversion onto already congested, smaller and less safe roads.
Its report argues that: "Road-user charging on the inter-urban road network is the most important way to stop congestion growing".
The transport secretary yesterday announced £755m-worth of road improvements but the committee warns that investing in infrastructure alone while allowing car use to rise unchecked is insufficient. The charging should be brought in next year under the 10-year transport plan, the report urges.
Mr Darling last month admitted that car journeys in the UK were at an all-time high, despite government commitments to promote public transport.
In addition, the report criticises the government's lack of official estimates on the cost of congestion and its impact on economic growth.
"The government needs to lead this debate rather than listening to it and it needs to present a credible plan to cut congestion and pollution," it says.
"This government and future governments face a stark choice: change the way we pay for travel and introduce widespread road-user charging, or accept that congestion will rise and persuade the travelling public and business to accept this."
The Conservatives - keen to portray themselves as the friend of the motorist - rejected the idea in principle.
The shadow transport secretary, Tim Collins, said: "The committee was quite right to look into the sharply rising levels of congestion on our roads but I fear it was quite wrong to conclude that the main means of tackling this should be by yet more penalties imposed on motorists.
"Motorists have been massively taxed, penalised and persecuted already. The total amount they pay in taxes has risen from £31bn in 1997 to £45bn last year, and is expected to continue to rise.
"The last thing we need is to give Gordon Brown encouragement to introduce yet more stealth taxes on motoring. Such taxes and charges can only further damage our economy and reduce living standards.
"It is time someone stood up for Britain's 36 million motorists. Driving is not a sin."
But Stephen Joseph, director of environmental transport group Transport 2000, countered: "As the select committee says, the government's transport studies have ended up with a lot of road building while proposals to cut traffic and improve public transport are being sidelined or dropped.
"This is a recipe for ever wider traffic jams and for an explosion of car-based development in the countryside alongside motorways and trunk roads."
He added: "Not only that, but the large increase in carbon dioxide emissions predicted in the studies is at loggerheads with government strategy to tackle climate change.
"To rescue the sense out of the multi-modal studies, the government should put a cap on road building and implement fully proposals in the studies to cut traffic and fund rail and local transport improvements."
