Plans to charge foreign lorry rivers to us UK roads backed by MPs

Plans to charge foreign lorry drivers for using British roads received cross-party support today.

MPs backed the HGV Road User Levy Bill, which will see hauliers from the continent pay £10 a day, up to a maximum of £1,000 a year, for using the UK network.

Ministers hope it will help British haulage companies compete with foreign firms which do not pay vehicle excise duty and often arrive on British soil with their fuel tanks full - meaning they can avoid paying duty at petrol pumps.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: "Vehicles which cause wear and tear to our roads should make a payment to take this into account."

He claimed foreign lorry drivers left the cost of maintaining UK highways "entirely to British taxpayers", saying they had "long enjoyed an advantage over our own haulage industry".

British firms will also pay the levy, which will come into force from April 2014 for trucks weighing more than 12 tons, but vehicle excise duty tax will be cut so 94% of UK haulage businesses will not be worse off.

Drivers who fail to pay the charge will be fined £200, with the possibility of their lorries and loads being impounded.

The Department for Transport hopes the levy will raise up to £23 million from foreign lorry drivers.

Mr McLoughlin told the Commons: "They make 1.5 million tries into the UK each year.

"We do not wish to discourage free trade with our partners in other countries. However, it is only right that we say we want to ensure that our own haulage industry has a fair chance to compete, and I hope this will go some way to giving that fair chance."

Shadow transport minister Jim Fitzpatrick backed the Bill, but added: "We will want to look at the detail when we go into committee."

Transport Select Committee chairwoman Louise Ellman said the legislation was "about backing the UK haulage industry and helping create a level playing field".

Tory Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) said the Bill would help ensure the domestic road haulage industry remained competitive.

He said: "It makes a more level playing field between UK and European hauliers, who for many years have made no contribution whatsoever to the UK road infrastructure and have been costing the UK economy a huge amount of money due to the accidents that they cause on our motorways."

MPs agreed without a vote to give the Bill a second reading. It now goes for further parliamentary scrutiny.