The government will “definitely not” proceed with a national road-user charging scheme if it wins the next election, the new transport secretary has said, in the most comprehensive renunciation so far of a policy adopted in 2004.

In his first big speech since his appointment in the cabinet reshuffle on June 5, he outlined a position likely to disappoint the many transport lobby groups that were already dismayed by the stance taken by Geoff Hoon, Lord Adonis’s predecessor. Mr Hoon said last month that the UK was “a long way off” adopting a national road-user charging scheme.