I think you'll find that motorists pay a lot more than is spent on the roads.

"Since 1997 Labour has been on the lucrative receiving end of colossal increases in tax receipts after millions of additional motorists have qualified to drive and purchased cars/fuel/insurance weighed down by VAT or other taxes. But the size of the major road network has increased in size by a paltry one per cent during the decade and a bit that the party has been in power.

Less than 20 per cent of the £50bn we cough up annually in motoring tax is returned to us via safer, smoother, wider or fresher roads. To put that another way, most of the £6.2bn Labour grosses a year in VAT on vehicles, plus the further £2.6bn it grabs in "company car tax" is reinvested in the network.

But the £5bn plus it makes in VED, plus the £36bn or more it trousers in VAT and other taxes on fuel is sheer "profit" which is free to be spent on other, non-car-related items."