UK’s entrepreneurs are baulking against implementing environmental measures after being slugged £3.1bn to go green over the past year.

A survey of UK’s SMEs by think tank, the Tenon Forum, has found such costs are dampening businesses’ appetite for going green and show 42% have failed to implement any environmental measures to date while 19% have no plans to do so in the future.

Tenon Forum research suggests cynicism is rife following last month’s ‘green budget’ as more than half, at 60%, of owner-managers believed efforts to drive green business behaviour were motivated by the desire to win votes, rather than genuine concern for the environment.

Andrew Jupp, Tenon’s national head of tax, said it was clear UK entrepreneurs felt strongly about green issues. ‘Many small businesses are keen to exercise their green credentials and to reduce their carbon footprint but this government is simply making it too difficult and too expensive for them,’ he said.