Manchester Congestion Charge an Opportunity Grasped?

As the ballot papers go out to the people of Greater Manchester this week for the vote on the congestion charge, I am getting a little nervous.

I’m thinking back to when Ken Livingstone introduced a congestion charge in London. The night before it began I wondered whether it would be overwhelmed by non-compliance. But as it proved I need not have been so worried – all was calm the next day and central London has been much the better for it.

I have been in favour of road charging for nearly forty years and as an academic idea it has little to fault it, but there are practical difficulties, and most importantly political reasons, for its delay. Indeed some say it is not so much a delay, but that congestion charging will never happen.

The technological reasons for delay have long since gone – there are many well-used technologies available and their cost is falling all the time. The delay at the moment is caused by the lack of political vision.

It is easy to blame politicians, but after all they have to get elected and once elected, stay elected. So they are not going to promote ideas which are unpopular (in general at least). Yet they have a duty to warn the public about the future and guide us through the issues that we have not got the time or the inclination to study.

There are two main issues ahead: first, if all cars run on electricity, where will the government get its fuel taxation; and second, in a crowded country where urban land values are very high how can this valuable road space be allocated effectively?

Motoring is getting cheaper year on year – about half as much as it cost in the eighties. So the amount of car travel is increasing – causing more congestion. Yet at the same time the amount of oil-based fuel used is set to decline as cars get more fuel efficient and more electric cars come on the market – causing a reduction in government revenue. A double whammy. This problem will not get really serious for a few years, but when it happens it will happen quickly. Like the credit crunch – few people noticed the problem until it was too late.

But let us be prepared. The old saw “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried” is well known and the same can be applied to road-user charging.

“For the problems ahead, road-user charging is the worst form of taxation except for all the others”.

By 11 December the people of Manchester will have made their decision. The national government has promised £1.5 billion for transport in the county if the 1.9 million electorate vote yes. That is £800 each or around the equivalent of a year’s free petrol.

Of course, if I were a Mancunian I would vote yes without the £800 bribe, but given that most people in Greater Manchester will not pay the charge on a regular basis, who could say no to one of the biggest infusions of cash into public transport for a long while?