Think tank suggests UK roads should be passed to taxpayers
The Social Market Foundation, one of many think tanks in the UK, has come up with a rather bizarre solution for the UK road problem. It is suggesting that ownership of UK roads should be passed from the Treasury to UK taxpayers and each citizen should be given a £1,500 stock market trading voucher in return for paying for the privilege of driving. In effect all UK roads would be changed to toll roads with motorists being charged 10p a mile to use them.
It is estimated that the U.K.'s road infrastructure is valued at around £95 billion and taking into account the £1,500 stock market trading voucher the average car owner would benefit to the tune of £75 a year. There is also talk regarding the potential to charge more for rush-hour traffic to try and spread out the hours of use by UK motorists. As a knock-on effect, this would likely increase the use of public sector transport at a time when the UK government has invested fairly heavily into this sector.
While on the surface this may be one of the more bizarre ideas for the UK road network perhaps it is time to look at something very different to give taxpayers value for money and stop UK motorists from being milked by the tax system?
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