BUSINESSES in Southampton could benefit from congestion charging, a study published today reveals.

Researchers say well designed and implemented road charging schemes can deliver “substantial” overall benefits to businesses.

However, they warned there will be winners and losers and commuters and customers could end up paying more.

The research was carried out for the CBI, the UK’s leading business lobby group, and the Freight Transport Association (FTA).

The findings, based on a theoretical conurbation with three charging zones, will be available for policy makers and local authorities to draw on.

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But Southampton’s transport boss insisted congestion charging was not on the agenda for the city.

Tory councillor Matt Dean said: “If we got to the point where we reached capacity on our road network we would probably want to do other things. Congestion charging is not an attractive option. We are not doing any work on it and are not interested in any sort of congestion charging in Southampton.

“Could you image what it would do to our retail offer? It would kill it. It would be catastrophic for retail and many of our small and medium sized enterprises.

“I do not believe it’s in the public interest to increase taxes at this time.”

Gary Whittle from Meachers, a leading city logistics firm which runs more than 100 lorries, said he was more concerned about the main arterial routes into the city such as the A35, M3 and M271 than traffic in the city centre. “There are much better ways of tackling congestion than implementing congestion charging,” he said.

The independent research by AECOM found improvements to public transport were needed before road charging was implemented and income should be ploughed back.

They said that charges should closely reflect the cost of congestion, and not aimed at raising extra tax. The researchers used a figure of no more than £5 and said charges for delivery vehicles which have to cross charging boundaries should be capped.

John Cridland, deputy director-general at the CBI, said the research showed congestion charging can benefit business “But it must be applied in the right way if it is to benefit business and receive widespread support, otherwise it will simply backfire,” he added.

FTA policy director James Hookham, added: “Government reluctance to invest in sufficient road capacity and UK transport infrastructure means that sooner or later an alternative to managing the road network through traffic queues has got to be found. If road pricing is the answer it must be applied in the right ways.”