Almost 90 per cent of all small businesses support the principle of road-charging as a strategy to avoid all-out gridlock on UK roads, a new survey has found.
More than 80 per cent told the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) that congestion was already hurting their business and 87 per cent supported some form of direct charge.
The support was conditional on the additional costs being balanced against reductions in road taxation elsewhere and could be rapidly squandered if trust is lost, said the BCC.
"Businesses in the UK are willing to look at road pricing, if it will provide funding to improve the current dismal condition of the UK transport infrastructure and if costs are offset by a reduction in other forms of tax," said David Frost of the BCC.
"We need to make sure that if road pricing is introduced businesses will see clear and tangible benefits from what they are paying."
Businesses also said that the government would have to ring-fence the money for increased spending on transport.
