Gordon Brown set to use final Budget to impose stiffer green taxes

Gordon Brown set to use final Budget to impose stiffer green taxes

Leaked correspondence between environmental chief and Chancellor champions tougher levies on vehicle drivers and the aviation industry

Environment Secretary David Miliband has floated a broad package of green
taxes designed to change people’s behaviour in a bid to offset global warming,
but
motorists and airline passengers are likely to bear the brunt of the reforms as
part of the government’s designs.

His proposals, in a leaked letter to Gordon Brown, include hikes on fuel and
air passenger duty as well as increased road tax for drivers of the most
polluting vehicles. The document also outlined a controversial policy which
would see forecourt prices kept at a certain level, irrespective of a drop in
oil prices.

This would ‘maintain pressure on the cost of motoring without individual
announcements on fuel duty needing to be made’, wrote Miliband.

The leak preceded a report, commissioned by the Chancellor, which will warn
of the cost of climate change unless action is taken immediately. Mr Miliband
also championed a move to curb greenhouse gas emissions, stating that the tax
system was a vital tool.

‘Market-based instruments, including taxes, need to play a substantial role,’
he believed. ‘As our understandings of climate change increases, it is clear
more needs to be done.’

Related links:

Think tank calls for oil windfall tax

Green tax revenues plummet by £2bn

BAA chief warns against flying tax

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