Proposed road laws could help reduce emissions

It has been proposed that motorists who use motorways and busy A-roads could be charged in accordance to the vehicles' weight and the CO2 emissions it releases.

Not only could this save those who drive clean cars a considerable amount of money, it could also help reduce emissions on Britain's busiest roads.

If the laws go through, individuals may be encouraged to buy cleaner cars in order to save themselves money in the long run.

According to the Department for Transport, new cars are increasingly cleaner in order to fit in with stricter EU regulations.

"It would take 50 new cars to produce the same air pollutant emissions per kilometre as a vehicle made in 1970. Over the last twenty years increasingly stringent emission limits have been set at a European level," it explained.

If the new car tax reform laws are passed, drivers with high-emission producing cars may have to pay as much as £150 a year to drive on these busy roads.

The proposals are being developed by the Department for Transport and the Treasury, who are attempting, through a series of reforms, to increase road funding.

The Department for Transport and the Treasury want to overhaul the vehicle taxation system to raise more than the £6 billion it currently raises each year.

Although this could improve the state of the roads, not all experts think it would be fair.

Indeed, Edmund King from the AA described the idea as a "poll tax on wheels".

"You’re already paying fuel duty, you’re already paying vehicle excise duty, you are already paying tolls on some roads and bridges, so an additional access charge is basically an additional tax. It does nothing really to regulate traffic, it is just an additional charge."

At the moment, cars produce vast amounts of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbons.

It is hoped that changes to the law would reduce these types of emissions, and consequently grant people in traffic-heavy areas a better chance of good health.