The government is to spend £10m investigating potential schemes for GPS-based national road pricing, new Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander announced last week.

Developing the system is a ‘personal priority’, the minister said in his first speech since taking over from Alistair Darling following the Cabinet reshuffle.

Speaking in York at the launch of bus company First’s Futurebus service, which uses satellite technology to provide real-time information at bus stops, Alexander said his aim is ‘to advance the debate about a national system of road pricing in this country, moving the debate from “why” to “how” we might make a national system work in practice’.

Growing prosperity is causing more travel and worsening congestion in major towns and cities and parts of the road network, he says. Road improvements and sustained investment in public transport will help, but a more radical approach is needed.

‘We need to explore the scope for developing a national system of road pricing,’ said Alexander.

This requires ‘a good look at technology to see how emerging technology could be used for road pricing,’ he said. Potential areas of interest include traffic and navigation services.

Potential suppliers will soon be invited to participate in a series of demonstration projects over the next three to four years to tackle difficult design issues.

Plans for a £200m Transport Innovation Fund to support local authority schemes will continue, to produce a major road pricing pilot within four years.

But Conservative transport spokesman Chris Grayling says it will be a decade before any system can be introduced.

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