At least, that’s what they’re proposing, with a high end rate of £2000 a year for the most polluting vehicles. They also plan to change the way airlines are taxed, transferring the burden from a per-passenger to per-flight basis.

The party’s environmental spokesman Chris Huhne said it was vital “to use green taxes as a lever in order to make our behaviour sustainable”.

He said he wanted to “change the cars that we buy rather than the cars that we’re using at the moment”.

The money raised will supposdly be returned as tax cuts, but I’d rather see it used as rebates and incentives for people buying bikes and low pollution vehicles. I’ve just finished contracting and, whilst charging through an umbrella company, could claim back a mileage allowance of 20p a mile for cycling to work. Admittedly there was also a, much higher, allowance for driving to work, but let’s ignore that and see all workers who commit to cycling or using public transport get an allowance. It could be regulated by their employers removing access to free car parking onsite and fines or points for anyone caught defrauding the system.

Technorati tag: Road Tax, Mileage Allowance