- Seven leading business organisations have joined forces to launch the Road Pricing Coalition, giving commercial road users a collective voice as the UK prepares for a fundamental shift in how road use is taxed.
- New report warns that fuel-duty receipts are expected to halve during the 2030s and approach zero by 2050/51, while demand for road travel remains high.
- Coalition urges government to start engaging businesses now and sets out five principles to ensure future reform is fair, workable and does not create a patchwork of overlapping charges.
Seven leading business organisations representing companies that depend on Britain’s roads have today launched the Road Pricing Coalition, as the Government faces an increasingly urgent challenge over how road use will be taxed as fuel-duty revenues decline.
The independent, cross-sector Coalition brings together the Road Haulage Association (RHA), Logistics UK, British International Freight Association (BIFA), British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA), Chemical Business Association (CBA), British Association of Removers (BAR) and Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA).
The Coalition’s launch comes two weeks before the Government’s Budget on 28 October, with the Chancellor facing significant pressure on the public finances and limited fiscal headroom. Fuel-duty rates are due to be confirmed at the Budget, but there has so far been no indication that the Government will use the fiscal event to set out a wider long-term approach to the decline in motoring-tax revenues.
That longer-term challenge is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Fuel-duty raised around £24.4 billion in 2024/25, but the Office for Budget Responsibility expects receipts to halve during the 2030s and approach zero by 2050/51 as the vehicle fleet electrifies.
Fuel-duty and Vehicle Excise Duty currently generate more than £33 billion a year, and it is not ring-fenced for transport spending, meaning its decline has implications for the wider public finances as well as the road network. At the same time, road use is not disappearing: vehicles travelled 342.6 billion miles on Great Britain’s roads in 2025, 1.2 per cent more than before the pandemic.
The Coalition is launching alongside its first report, Paying for our Roads: The decline of fuel-duty revenues and the choices ahead, which examines the scale of the fiscal challenge, the choices facing government and lessons from road-charging systems around the world.
The report sets out the scale of the challenge created by declining fuel-duty revenues, looks at how other countries have responded, and examines some of the considerations the UK Government will need to make in the years ahead. Rather than backing a particular model, the Coalition argues that any future reform should first meet five tests to ensure it is fair, workable and supports the wider economy.
The Government has already begun that transition through Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED), which will introduce a mileage-based charge for electric, hydrogen and plug-in hybrid cars from April 2028. Battery-electric and hydrogen cars will initially pay 3p per mile and plug-in hybrids 1.5p per mile. However, vans, HGVs and other vehicle types are outside the initial scheme, and the OBR estimates eVED will offset only around a quarter of the longer-term decline in fuel-duty revenues.
The Coalition says this means the debate over the future of motoring taxation is only beginning, and that businesses which rely on the road network need to be involved before wider decisions are fixed.
Its launch report proposes five tests for any future approach:
- Business engagement throughout the process, including policy design, testing, implementation and review.
- Alignment with wider government objectives, including economic growth, productivity, competitiveness, supply-chain security and decarbonisation.
- Fair and proportionate treatment of business road users across sectors, vehicle types and regions, including comparable treatment of UK and overseas operators.
- Phased, transparent and evidence-led implementation, giving businesses time to adapt and allowing proposals to be tested in real operating conditions.
- A coordinated and interoperable charging framework, avoiding a proliferation of separate registration systems, payment methods and overlapping national, devolved and local charges.
Together, the Coalition says these principles should form the starting point for any future discussion about how road use is taxed, ensuring businesses have a voice before decisions are taken and helping to avoid reforms that create unnecessary cost or complexity.
Tim Doggett, Chief Executive of the Chemical Business Association and Chair of the Road Pricing Coalition, said:
“The tax system for road use is going to change. The OBR’s forecasts make that increasingly difficult to ignore, and the introduction of eVED shows that the transition has already begun.
“The question is how government responds, and whether the businesses that depend on the road network are involved in shaping the answer. We are not launching this Coalition to campaign for one particular model. We are launching it because the decisions taken over the coming years will have major consequences for business costs, investment, supply chains and the wider economy.
“Government has time to get this right, but the conversation needs to start now. Commercial road users need to be in the room from the beginning, not brought in once the fundamental decisions have already been made.”
Andrew Large, Director General of the British Association of Removers and Vice-Chair of the Road Pricing Coalition, said:
“For many commercial operators, road use is not discretionary. Removals businesses cannot simply avoid journeys, switch to another mode of transport or always choose when and where they travel.
“That is why it is so important that any future system reflects how businesses actually operate. A reform that looks straightforward on paper can create substantial costs and complexity in practice, particularly for SMEs. The Coalition gives sectors like ours the opportunity to bring that practical experience into the debate at an early stage.”
Richard Smith, Managing Director of the Road Haulage Association, said:
“Road transport is an enabler of the whole economy. Our members move the goods that keep businesses operating and communities supplied, so changes to the way road use is taxed will be felt far beyond the haulage sector. A cross-sector Coalition gives industry a stronger voice to make sure future reforms are workable, proportionate and support growth.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
- Paying for our Roads: The decline of fuel-duty revenues and the choices ahead is the first major report published by the Road Pricing Coalition. It examines how road use is taxed today, the considerations the government will need to make when designing future reform, international experience and five principles for a fair and workable UK approach.
- The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates that fuel duties raised around £24.4 billion in 2024/25 and expects receipts to halve during the 2030s and approach zero by 2050/51 as the vehicle fleet electrifies. OBR Fiscal risks and sustainability, July 2025
- The OBR’s later analysis estimates that eVED will offset around one-quarter of the longer-term loss of fuel-duty revenues, in part because vans, lorries and other vehicle types, which account for around 40 per cent of fuel-duty revenue, are not included in the initial policy. OBR Economic and fiscal outlook, November 2025
- From 1 April 2028, eVED will apply to battery-electric, hydrogen fuel-cell and plug-in hybrid cars. Initial rates will be 3p per mile for battery-electric and hydrogen cars and 1.5p per mile for plug-in hybrids. HMRC policy paper on Electric Vehicle Excise Duty
- Department for Transport statistics show that 82 per cent of UK domestic freight activity was moved by road in 2024, measured in tonne-kilometres. Transport Statistics Great Britain: Freight
- Vehicles travelled 342.6 billion miles on Great Britain’s roads in 2025, 1.2 per cent more than in 2019. Vans accounted for 17 per cent of traffic and van traffic was 10 per cent above its pre-pandemic level. DfT Road Traffic Estimates 2025
- The Road Pricing Coalition’s founding members are the Road Haulage Association, Logistics UK, British International Freight Association, British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association, Chemical Business Association, British Association of Removers and Construction Plant-hire Association.
- The Coalition does not advocate the introduction of a particular form of road pricing or endorse a preferred replacement for fuel-duty.
- Instead, it aims to provide government with a representative forum where commercial road users can test proposals, contribute operational evidence and identify unintended consequences before reforms are implemented.
- The full report is available at [REPORT LINK].
- Further information about the Coalition is available at [WEBSITE].
About the Road Pricing Coalition
The Road Pricing Coalition is an independent, cross-sector coalition representing the interests and practical concerns of commercial road users in the development of UK road-pricing and road-user-charging policy.
Its members represent businesses involved in freight, logistics, vehicle rental and leasing, construction, passenger and commercial transport, supply chains and other activities that depend on the road network. The Coalition provides a forum for these sectors to contribute operational evidence, identify shared principles and engage constructively with government, Parliament and public authorities.
The Coalition does not advocate the introduction of road pricing or endorse a single preferred charging model. Its purpose is to help ensure that any future reforms are proportionate, transparent and evidence-led; operationally workable for businesses; aligned with economic growth, competitiveness and decarbonisation; coordinated across national, devolved and local government; and developed through early and meaningful engagement with commercial road users.