2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003,
2002,
2001,
2000,
1999,
1998,
1997,
1996,
1995,
1994
LAST CHANCE FOR CHANCELLOR - FOE Says 1998 Must Be Year of Green Budget
12 Mar 1998
Today, Friends of the Earth warns Chancellor Gordon
Brown that next week's Budget is the last chance for Labour to prove
its green credentials. Britain's leading environmental pressure group
publishes the most comprehensive
Green
Budget package ever put together in the UK. The package has been
tested through Cambridge Econometrics' highly respected MDM-E3 (economy-environment-energy)
economic model. FOE argues that the money raised from taxing "bads",
such as polluting fuels and valuable resources, should be used to
fund "goods" such as lower taxes on jobs, and nationwide energy conservation
and public transport schemes. New spending should target the poor
and vulnerable.
FOE'S GREEN BUDGET PACKAGE
FOE's Budget would include measures on:
1.Transport: to achieve significant reductions in CO2
emissions and help deliver an integrated transport system:
- Raise the road fuel price escalator to 9% raising an
extra 1.8 billion after two years and cut CO2 emissions by 3.5% by
2010
- End mileage banding and 'free fuel' tax concessions for company
cars raising 660 million per year
- Tax private non-residential parking raising 400 million
a year
- Vary Vehicle Excise Duty based on emissions and fuel
efficiency
- Cut back the roads programme (including the A650 Bingley
relief road (13 million), the A556(M) trunk road (93.4 million) and
the M25 Junctions 12-15 widening (93.8 million) and double public
sector funding to boost bus-use, cycling and walking in congested urban
areas.
2.Energy: to meet CO2 reduction targets,
tackle fuel poverty, and encourage development of the renewable energy
sector:
- Cut tax breaks for the oil and gas industry: remove
the generous tax breaks on Petroleum Revenue Tax of over 1 billion
p.a.
- Establish a nation-wide home energy conservation programme,
to target the 8 million fuel-poor households through a fifteen year
programme insulating 500,000 cold and energy-inefficient homes each
year and creating up to 50,000 jobs
- Extend the promised cut in VAT on energy saving materials to
all social housing
3. Shifting tax from 'goods' to 'bads'
- Extend and increase the waste ('landfill') tax to cover
incineration, as well as landfill, and increase rates by 2 per tonne
per year, raising an additional 700 million in 2000,
- Tax primary aggregates at a starting rate of 1 a tonne
rising each year thereafter by an additional 1 per tonne, raising 500
million in 2000
4. New incentives to reduce environmental damage and encourage
innovation in key sectors of the economy.
- Harmonise VAT on refurbishment and conversion of empty properties
for housing and new build housing at 5%
- Introduce charges on pesticides and chemical fertilizers to fund
policies that encourage the conversion from chemically intensive to
organic farming systems
- Provide tax incentives for mainstream industry to invest in innovative
environmental technologies
THE EFFECTS OF RESPENDING ON THE ENVIRONMENT AND FOR THE POOR
FOE show how their "polluter pays" proposals would (by the year 2010):
- increase tax revenue by 28 billion per year
- cut employers' National Insurance Contributions by up
to 3%,
- provide funds for energy conservation schemes, creating
up to 50,000 jobs and tackling fuel poverty, and for a efficient,
affordable and reliable public transport system creating up
to 130,000 jobs
- increase total employment by up to 391,000 and reduce unemployment
by 166,000
- cut overall business costs in sectors of the economy
that employ over 88% of the UK workforce and account for 76% of GDP
and 60% of UK exports
- increase GDP by 0.2%, and cut CO2 emissions
by 7%: a significant contribution to the Government's 20% target.
Charles Secrett, Director of FOE said today:
"This is truly the Chancellor's last chance to deliver on his environmental
promises. We have presented him with the most detailed and authoritative
Green Budget package ever put together in this country. Our package is
good for jobs, good for the poor, and good for the environment. We must
stop climate change, curb excessive traffic, cut health-threatening air
pollution and slow excessive consumption We must invest in jobs, in energy
efficiency and in public transport. Our package shows how both are possible.
Most Labour supporters - and all environmentalists - know this is true.
We will not forgive Gordon Brown if yet again he fails to live up to Labour's
solemn promise to the people to be the first truly green government ever".
PLEASE NOTE
Friends of the Earth will provide spokespeople on green Budget issues
before or on Budget day. Radio interviews can be recorded or conducted
live on our ISDN facility.
Contact details:
Friends of the Earth
26-28 Underwood St.
LONDON
N1 7JQ
Tel: 020 7490 1555
Fax: 020 7490 0881
Web: www.foe.co.uk/feedback.html
