Home > Press releases > 1996
26 Nov 1996
Charles Secrett, Executive Director of Friends of the Earth, said:
"We welcome the Chancellor's response to green concerns over transport issues. The Treasury is using its financial muscle to drive forward essential pollution control and improvements in public health. These are useful steps towards a sustainable transport policy."
Although the Chancellor reduced tax breaks for oil drilling, he failed to remove damaging subsidies to agriculture and the nuclear industry and avoided any significant move towards ecological taxation. Significantly, the Budget made no mention of:
- increasing the landfill tax and extending it to discharges to air and water (a £2 per tonne increase would bring in an extra £700 million in the first year)
- virgin resource taxes (a £1 per tonne tax on virgin aggregates would raise £223 million in the first year)
- reducing VAT on energy saving materials and equipment
Charles Secrett said:
"The Chancellor has missed many opportunities to restore a feelgood factor in the future of the economy and the environment. The UK's long-term environmental and economic health needs a substantial tax shift from jobs to pollution."
NOTE TO EDITORS: [1] Since the last Budget, Friends of the Earth has been pressing the Chancellor to make these specific changes in this year's Budget, through detailed correspondence, briefings and meetings with Treasury Officials.
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Contact details:
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LONDON
N1 7JQ
Tel: 020 7490 1555
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Web: www.foe.co.uk/feedback.html
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