Lib Dem's £2000 road tax plan

Liberal Democrats have revealed radical plans to charge gas guzzlers up to £2000 for road tax to ‘transform Britain’s transport system.’

A fair deal for motorists? 

In Fast Track Britain: Building a Transport System for the 21st Century policy, unveiled at their recent conference, they claim to focus on reducing transport emissions and ‘give a fair deal to Britain’s motorists’.

They plan to do this by increasing the cost of tax substantially for owners of higher emitting cars, and cutting it altogether for eco-friendly car owners.

They will do this in several ways. Firstly owners of cars falling in the new tax band A will also up to £1000 as a reward for driving a low emitting car (as well as free road tax). Owners of more polluting cars will find that, under the proposals, their tax bill rises to £2000 per year.

Winners and losers 

It would mean that owners of green cars such as the Volkswagen Polo Bluemotion and SEAT Ibiza Ecomotive would receive up to £1000 for owning cars emitting 100 g/km or less of CO2.

Whereas owners of cars such as the Land Rover Range Rover Sport, that emit more than 255g/km of CO2, would be subject to the £2000 per year tax.

In order to encourage people to drive fuel efficient vehicles, they also claim that it is necessary to significantly increase road tax for lorries and trailers. Likewise, tax on older vehicles would also be increased to encourage the disposal of more polluting cars.

The outcome 

The Liberal Democrats claim that their proposal is to "tax differently, not more", although these proposals mean motorists will have to pay out even more than the current road tax proposals set to kick in in 2009/2010.

The policy also confirms plans to introduce a motorway and major road pricing scheme in Britain.

Find out all you need to know about the current road tax proposals here.