The government has abandoned proposals for a national road pricing system to be introduced after the next General Election.

New transport secretary Lord Adonis told a conference in London: "We will definitely not proceed with a national road-user charging scheme in the next Parliament."

He said to do so would require a democratic mandate and despite being in the last Labour election manifesto, he said it would not be in the next because "it is not the time to be putting that before the British people".

The government has been cooling on the idea of a national system since it was announced as policy by former transport secretary, now chancellor, Alistair Darling.

The turning point was the collection of 1.7 million signatures for a Downing Street petition opposing the idea.

It remains official policy to encourage cities to adopt charging schemes locally.