§ Mr. Leeasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what are the criteria by which the profit or loss of public highways outside urban centres is measured; what were the profits or losses thus attributed to all M, A, B and unclassified roads, respectively, for the financial years 1972–73, 1973–74, 1974–75; and if he will make a statement on the basis of comparison between road and rail profitability per mile.
§ Dr. GilbertAs the public highways are not run as a commercial undertaking there is no annual computation of profit or loss. Revenue from road user taxation forms part of the general pool of taxation and is not treated separately.
However, if the combined proceeds of vehicle excise duty, fuel excise duty, VAT on fuel and cars—purchase tax in the earlier years—and car tax are treated as income from roads, income exceeded expenditure by £626 million, £438 million, and £140 million in the three respective financial years. Expenditure comprised national Government and local authority costs of road construction and maintenance, administrative and police costs, and the costs of accident prevention and of accidents to the extent they are not covered by insurance.
It is not practicable to allocate the excess between roads within and roads outside urban centres, or between different categories of roads. There are about 206,000 miles of public surfaced roads in Great Britain.
Government grants to the railways in calendar years 1972, 1973 and 1974 were £141.6 million—including £27 million compensation for price restraint—£193 million and £388.9 million, respectively. There are about 11,300 route miles of railway in Great Britain.