Sat in the waiting room at the Department for Transport’s offices at Great Minster House on Marsham Street, I can’t help recalling a speech made by Norman Baker MP to a room full of fleet managers shortly before the General Election.

“Road pricing is going to come,” said the then Liberal Democrat spokesman for transport. “The civil servants want it – it’s a way to get better use of the road infrastructure.”

Unfortunately for Baker and his party colleagues, life in the coalition government, while giving them a taste of real power for the first time in almost a century, also means compromising on a whole raft of pre-election pledges.

Their Conservative partners were firmly against road charging pre-election – their stance has not budged and it’s the Lib Dems that have ceded ground.

Baker, though, remains convinced that charging drivers per mile for using motorways and dual carriageways, with the cost offset by a reduction in VED and fuel duty, is the future.

“I think it’s inevitable because you have got to ration road space and also, in purely practical terms, with the duty from de-carbonising transport in 10 to 20 years’ time no doubt the Treasury will be looking for a different source of income.”

But he adds: “It’s a question for the future – it will not be in this parliament.”

As under-secretary of state for transport, Baker’s responsibilities include regional and local transport, alternatives to travel, traffic management and walking and cycling.

He cycles to work – a fold-up bike rests against his office wall – and does not have a ministerial car but willingly trots out the coalition’s mantra that it will not wage war against the motorist.

“The enemy is not the car, it’s carbon,” he told fleets at the Fleet News Green Summit in October.

“If you look at many car journeys, there isn’t an alternative. So we have to deal with the majority of journeys that are made by car and the way to do this is to reduce carbon.”

The £5,000 incentive for buyers of electric vehicles will still come into force next year, but while some critics have suggested this bias towards one form of alternative fuel creates an unlevel playing field for other options, such as CNG and biofuels, Baker points to the back end incentives those fuels enjoy via lower tax at the pump.

The Government is also investing £10 million to encourage the development of more sustainable biofuels, but sees them as playing a greater role in heavy good vehicles and aviation.

Baker adds: “CNG, LPG and biofuels can reduce carbon emissions; electric cars have the potential to remove it altogether.

"If we are looking at a 50% cut in carbon emissions by 2050, which is a huge challenge, we have to de-carbonise transport entirely.

“Electric cars offer that opportunity in a way which the others don’t. Other alternatives offer help along the way to fill the gap but not the final solution.”

Consequently, money will continue to be invested in regional plug-in stations and grants will still help to fund electric vehicle research and development.

However, electric vehicles only remove CO2 emissions from the tailpipe – not from the well to wheel chain entirely.

Does Baker believe a new approach to benefit-in-kind taxation will be necessary to take into account the different stages in the vehicle and battery lifecycle at which CO2 is emitted?

“ does reflect the new technologies in that if you have an electric vehicle then the emissions are lower,” he says.

“But we are not wedded to that particular matrix forever. We will have to look at it in years to come but it’s probably got 10 years’ life in it.”

Before any changes were made, he added, there would be full consultation with the fleet and manufacturer sectors.

The Government is also keen to tackle those car journeys that can be removed from the road, particularly in congested city centres where many trips are less than five miles.

It will need to persuade fleets that it has viable solutions.

They were damning about the previous administration’s track record on public transport in a recent Fleet News survey. Just 13% believed the Government’s transport policy offered realistic, affordable alternatives to the car.

In many areas, persuading people out of the car and on to trains is difficult when the rail network is full. It will take time and money to free up capacity.

“There is a congestion issue in the UK due to a lack of investment in local areas and the fact we are a compact island,” Baker says.

The recent comprehensive spending review identified a number of opportunities where investment in the transport infrastructure would reduce congestion and bottlenecks while also creating jobs.

This combination is something of a holy grail.

A local transport fund of capital and revenue totalling £560 million has been set up for this purpose. It is intended to encourage a behavioural shift towards cycling and walking and use of bus lanes ahead of a seismic change to make cars even cleaner than they are now.

“We have a pool of schemes that we would like to do if money allows,” says Baker.

“We are inviting local authorities to come back to us with ideas.”

Full details are yet to be revealed, but local authorities will have to bid for initiatives showing that they are working hand-in-hand with their communities. Support from local business will also help.