Now Byers wants to privatise roads

Transport Secretary Stephen Byers is considering plans for a fresh and highly controversial privatisation of the main road network.

The move would see Mr Byers come under fire from many road users and Labour MPs opposed to state sell-offs.

It comes at a time when the Transport Secretary is already facing pressure over three separate privatisation schemes.

Railtrack went into administration last year, the Nats air traffic control system is to be bailed out with £30 million of taxpayers' cash, and there is fierce opposition to plans for the part-privatisation of the Tube.

The latest roads scheme would see handing over planning and maintenance work for 30 years to private companies, which could earn more money by reducing congestion and improving safety.

A pilot project involving a single "maintenance area" run by the Highways Agency, the government body controlling main roads, is likely to see tenders invited for a management contract in 2004.

Private companies would be able to attract higher levels of investment and giving them 30-year contracts would, it is argued, encourage high-quality work across the ailing network.

A pilot project in Scotland, however, led to complaints about poor maintenance and gritting.

Brian Donohoe, a Labour member of the Commons all-party transport committee, warned: "It would mean exactly the same could happen south of the border."

Paul Watters, roads and transport policy director for the AA, said private franchises could be more efficient and provide more money than the present system.

But he warned that the Highways Agency should should keep overall strategic control.

The proposals show that Mr Byers is not being deflected from further use of the private sector despite the furore over Railtrack, Nats and the Underground.

Some reports have claimed he will lose his Cabinet job in a summer reshuffle by Tony Blair - but he is understood to be determined to press on and deliver widescale transport improvements by the time of the next election.

His friends claim he is being made the scapegoat for failures in transport policy before he got his job and that the main reason he has attracted critical headlines is because of the rows involving his department's competing spin doctors, Jo Moore and Martin Sixsmith, who both resigned last week.

Will private roads be more efficient?