There is one nationalised industry that most people support. They often do not see its failings. Indeed, most do not think of it as a nationalised industry. Most think it as a natural monopoly. Most protect it because it is provided “free” at the point of use. I am talking about roads.
The truth is like many nationalised industries state run roads let us down and cost us a fortune. The state provides too little capacity and makes using the roads difficult. It is run as a monopoly with rationing, and with an ever increasing array of rules enforced by fines and other penalties. Far from being free to users, drivers are fleeced in so many ways. Drivers are made to pay an annual fee for keeping a vehicle. They pay 55% of their fuel costs in tax, with VAT even charged on the fuel duty itself. They pay high VAT and tax on buying new vehicles. They have to pay heavy parking charges for parking in publicly owned car parks and on sections of the highway, tolls on some bridges, and congestion charges in some urban areas. Some have to pay high fees for residents parking.
This contrasts with nationalised rail where fares are VAT exempt, diesel for trains attracts a very low duty rate and there are no special charges for keeping or buying a train.
Worse still is the state of the roads. The main motorways and A roads, usually dualled, that take the bulk of the traffic are run by the national government through the Highways Agency. There has been no attempt to complete a proper network serving the main cities, ports, airports and train stations. There is still no south coast motorway. There is no fully dualled A 303 road to the south west. There is too little capacity across the Pennines, inadequate roads to Felixstowe and Dover, two of our busiest ports and no main highway between Oxford and Cambridge to top the golden triangle ear marked for more homes and business investment. There are many other regional gaps and uncompleted main routes. The state has usually adopted a string of beads approach, dualling individual by passes along a main highway but not dualling the whole. The Highways Agency seems to be run by people who want to ration our access to roadspace, rather than by a growth driven organisation that wishes to expand to meet the obvious existing and growing demand.
Road management often leaves much to be desired as well. Potholes and poor surfaces are becoming a problem even on these national highways. There is endless tinkering with them overnight with clumsy lane and whole road closures disrupting journeys and driving trucks onto smaller roads. The policy to convert some safety lanes into additional running lane capacity had its critics which led to expensive and complex initial works being followed by more cost and disruptive remedial works. The advent of so called smart motorways gives them powers to intervene over lanes closures and speeds which are not always judged well.
The state did build one of the most vital pieces of twentieth century infrastructure when it completed the M 25. Without this the UK economy would be throttled by having to route too many goods and people through London with its medieval street plan and hostile Councils. The road was so successful that soon its critics switched from claiming it was not needed to claiming it had become a large car park from congestion. Subsequent attempts to widen it were always too little too late. The expansion has also led to intrusive works delaying traffic over a period of many months. The failure to put in wide enough bridges initially left no room for expansion without expensive replacement of bridges.
A similar attempt to provide a ringway around Birmingham also produced a good road that was too small. There government allowed an experiment with the provision of additional private sector roadspace. The M6 toll road has provided much needed extra capacity at no cost to the taxpayer. Those who want the certainty of no congestion or no delays pay for the toll road, freeing more of the space on the nationalised alternative for those who do not want to pay or cannot afford to. It’s a win win for payers and users of the free system.
When I produced a report for the incoming Cameron government on economic policy with Simon Wolfson of Next we argued that we needed to go over to private capital for roads to tackle the scarcity and poor performance. We suggested selling long leases of the main roads for around £100 bn to companies that would improve and manage them and expand them, collecting toll revenues which would be subject to regulation. This money would be used to cut the state debt, cutting the interest bill by enough to abolish Vehicle Excise Duty. The tolls were to be set so that on average no-one was worse or better off from the tolls versus the cancelled VED. The scheme would have been mildly redistributional from richer to poorer as lower income people tend to drive fewer miles. Drivers could also always divert from the national highways to the free local roads if they wished. I understand why George Osborne rejected this as too difficult, as polling said people would oppose it , believing they would end up paying more. I did not pursue the idea further and am not recommending it today.
This leaves the Birmingham model as the obvious hybrid to adopt. Letting the private sector build new relief roads is a win win, freeing road space on so called free roads whilst offering those in a hurry or wanting a better service the option of paying for it. Every time I have used the M6 Toll it has been free flowing, with a good quality of service and easy payment technology. The services are also good and not under the same pressure as the often crowded and sparse service areas on the free network. The free network decided to strictly limit service areas giving them strong monopoly like positions.
The government could draw up a list of motorways and main A roads where a relief road or a new route is needed. The government would need to offer planning permission for the construction to companies bidding to be granted the rights. The government could offer a long lease with future reversion, or the freehold. They could set criteria and requirements on the private contractors bidding, and award to the one in each case that offered the best package.
This government is cutting back on the scarcely adequate new roads programme it inherited. The public and business votes with its vehicles, choosing 59% of all trips by car and just 2% by train. Rail freight’s market share has fallen a long way under BR and now Network Rail. Gone are the days of more sidings in industrial plants and branch lines into business estates. Today new business parks are located near motorways and trunk roads. The railway likes trainload quantities which few producers can now manage. To take a bigger share of freight as many would like it needs more active marketing of single wagon marshalling with new branch lines into leading business centres. In the meantime more truck fleets take to the roads, hammering the surfaces with their high axle weights.
If the government cannot bring itself to allow some private capital to top up and improve our road network it needs to find the borrowings to put in more highway. You cannot have a growing economy without more transport capacity. The government has put a target for growth of railfreight into its nationalisation plans, but so far has not produced any supporting material to show how it will identify new customers and pick up their loads, let alone deliver them to their end destination. The truth is roads go everywhere in the UK and rail only go to a limited number of places with stations. The marketing , service arrangements and pricing still favour the truck door to door over the train for part of the journey.
When it comes to passengers too few people live close to a rail station or wish to go to a destination close to a station. Most so called rail journeys include two car/taxi/bus journeys as well as a train ride. You do not go shopping by train for the weekly groceries. You cannot usually take the children to school by train outside London. Most households with two workers need two cars to get each to work, usually travelling in different directions. To get growth in business and to help people do their jobs we need better roads with more capacity. That starts with the national network. The debate should be about how to rise the money and how to pay for it.
July 29, 2026
Ironically it was a Judge who nationalised roads.
All property owners were originally responsible for maintaining the road adjacent to their property, but as the great highways developed, property owners on the Great North Road etc reached the point where they were unable to abide by that law.
One individual was taken to court for failing to maintain his section of the (A1). His defence was that it’s maintenance cost more than he earned and the time required was more than one man could work.
The Assizes Judge ruled that maintaining Highways must be a community undertaking. No law can be made that is impossible for the law abiding to live by, such is the humanity and grace of the English Common Law.
Now we have the situation that in spite of taxing Road users more than the maintenance of roads costs, the State refuses to abide by the law and maintain the highways.
I wish a sound Assizes Judge could Rule.
July 29, 2026
Indeed interesting .
All sound stuff from JR not only do they not provide sufficient road and parking spaces but they reduce road capacity with bus and bike lanes often giving half the road space to 5% of the traffic and forcing 95% to use the other half. Self driving cars and taxis which will be far cheaper as no driver will further increase traffic demand. Trains are already rather uncompetitive and will get even less so.
If more roads and less congestion people can spend less time in their cars not more. If any rationing is needed it should be done by price not congestion causing as now.
July 29, 2026
JR “Most so called rail journeys include two car/taxi/bus journeys as well as a train ride” Often four journeys in practice two at each end with say a wife car drop off or taxi pick up. Two legs with no passengers just the driver.
With faster trains they have fewer stops so these end connection become longer and door to door times often end up longer too.
July 29, 2026
Anyone who breaks the speed limit should have their car seized and auctioned to finance more road cops.
July 29, 2026
It would be interesting and instructive to compare UK’s case with how roads are financed and used in other countries. To deal with the substantial increase in traffic demand, Singapore has implemented various pricing policies with the aim of restraining car ownership and usage. These measures generate substantial revenue which helps finance transportation projects. Malaysia, on the other hand, has greatly expanded its road network, introduced road tolls and embarked on an aggressive privatisation programme to help finance its infrastructure projects and increase their cost efficiency.
As UK’s population rapidly increases parts of it need to adopt Singapore’s policies while other parts could learn from Malaysia. Either way the root cause of the problems in UK is mass immigration, of largely unproductive people, causing the population to increase while infrstructure and services struggle to meet demand. Curbing immigration and making it far more selective is at least a major part of the solution to most of UK’s problems.
Also of interest are Sweden and Finland. Sweden has an unusual system where roughly two-thirds of its total road network consists of private roads, owned and maintained by private landowners or local cooperatives. However, the Swedish government still owns and maintains the primary national highways and transit routes.
July 29, 2026
As you mention later on, the root cause of many of our ills is MASS IMMIGRATION, most of people who are not putting into the system or, taking more out than putting in. I highlight your above sentence because I think our so called betters see Singapore as a model for the UK. Problem is, they lack the ability to see that oranges and not the same as lemons, and you cannot treat one nation and its people the same as another.
July 29, 2026
Further to my preb=vious comment, Australia also has many toll roads and they don’t necessarily lead to congestion free travel.
July 29, 2026
We don’t need more road capacity; we need fewer people. This country continues to import too many people, and the infrastructure can no longer cope. It’s not just the roads, it’s everything – water, schools, NHS, energy, transport, finances, food, housing. In fact, everything that classifies a country as first world. To look at the symptoms and not the cause is the main failing of governments over the last few decades. Stop the majority of immigration, start deporting people, and the infrastructure will sort itself out. And while you are at it, stop rewarding the feckless and sort out the welfare state, which we can no longer afford. None of this is rocket science.
Reply I have explained many times the costs and difficulties caused by large scale inward migration.Our roads are far too congested at current population levels.
July 29, 2026
Good morning.
Bingo !!
As I have always been saying here and elsewhere, the plan for all these cameras, zones and pence per mile is to monetise the road network so they can sell it off.
Now do not get me wrong, I am all for private venture to build and charge for new infrastructure such as the M6 Toll, the QE2 Bridge and so on. What I am very much against is being asked to pay for that which we have already paid for, with no choice but to use it and be charge and extortionate amount for the privilege. We have been here before and we all know the price of the lack of choice. CHOICE being the cornerstone of modern Conservatism as opposed to crony capitalism, which we have now.
Finally the truth emerges.
Reply I am proposing new toll roads, not charging for the roads we already have.Try reading what I write before commenting.
July 29, 2026
This is all a little bit Nuts!
July 29, 2026
Great article. No chance Labour will do anything imaginative. All they’ll want to do is spend public money, most likely in a slow and wasteful way as with HS2. Dispiriting to hear that Cameron and Osborne blocked your and Simon Wolfson’s plan. Imagine where we’d be now if that had got going 15 years ago!
Can I suggest you send a 1 page summary to Kemi and see whether she will initiate a comprehensive policy review on this topic so the Conservatives have a well thought through policy to present come the election?