Despite his promises to make this year's Budget a 'carbon budget', Chancellor Gordon Brown has failed yet again to provide an adequate Budget response to the threat of climate change. In summary, he will:
- Freeze fuel duty increases until September
- Apply a zero road tax rate for the "most environmentally friendly" cars and a new rate of £210 for the 1% highest carbon emitters
- Retain home insulation grants to ensure a quarter of a million extra homes would be insulated over the next two years
- "Plan to" index the climate change levy in line with inflation from 2007 to cut CO2 emissions further
- Set up a new £1bn energy and environmental research institute, funded by government and private industry
- Introduce new incentives for piloting smart metering and a new labelling scheme for energy efficient goods to make homes greener
He failed to:
- Take any steps to curb the increase of emissions from the growth in aviation
- Introduce nationwide council tax rebates and cut stamp duty for low-carbon, energy efficient homes to encourage householders to be more energy efficient, and install micro-generation systems
- Reduce VAT on home insulation
- Introduce tax breaks, grants and other incentives for householders to install micro-generation systems
- Set an annual carbon budget
Environmentally, his Budget is a failure.
No comments:
Post a Comment