The Government collects £47 billion a year from British motorists. This is among the highest taxation in Europe yet our Government continues to deliver the worst road network with the most severe congestion in Europe.

The last decade has seen car numbers in Britain increase by five million and all licensed vehicles by 24%. Since the 1980s our EU competitors’ motorways have grown five times faster than the UK’s, and over this time our major road network has scarcely changed at all, increasing by only 434kms (270 miles).

The unsurprising result is more traffic jams, higher costs for industry, longer commuting and other journeys and, of course, more greenhouse gasses from those queuing vehicles. While roads account for 92% of passenger travel most of Government spending has been on rail.

Privatise our road network? That’s going to be most people’s reaction to recent news that ministers are thinking about selling off motorways and trunk roads to private contractors.

Our new Transport Secretary, Phillip Hammond, seems to be making all the right noises. And at least he’s being honest. He’s recently said that the nation’s threadbare finances mean that building new roads with public money won’t be easy. But in that statement at least there’s a tacit acceptance that we do need more new roads. Something that the Labour lot would never, ever have admitted. Hammond has also hinted that any big, extra capacity road projects would have to be paid for by the private sector and that he and his team have been impressed by the M6 Toll. To me, this is good news.

And before you get on your high horse, we’re not talking about road charging but road tolls. And there’s a difference. I regularly use the M6 Toll and its quite simply Britain’s Best Road. A smooth as unrolled silk, well maintained and congestion free, it’s a road model that really works. I gratefully pay a fiver not to sit in impotent rage on the constipated M6 and would welcome more asphalt like it. The brutal truth is we’re not going to get any more major roads funded by the government, so toll roads are our only option. As long as they’re fairly priced, modelled on the European system of toll-booths and not through some devious satellite charging system, then at least we’ll get the extra capacity we need. I firmly believe that the UK’s major road infrastructure is in such a mess that this is the only realistic and sensible option.

I’d like to see some reduction in fuel duty and road tax to compensate for the extra cost that motorists will have to pay, but at least we could begin now on a network of new motorways that will go some way to easing our impossible congestion. But don’t talk to me about spending £35 billion on a High Speed rail network that nobody will use. Barely 10% of consumers use trains in Europe and their rail networks are a million times better than ours ever will be. Build some big new roads, Mr Hammond. And build them soon.

Quentin Willson