Environmental Implications of the emergency budget
Date: 29-06-2010
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Some Green initiatives included in the emergency budget but overshadowed by £11 billion of cuts and VAT rise to 20%.
Every individual and business across the UK will be affected as this budget is implemented over the next few months.
There was some good news from an environmental standpoint however as George Osborne reaffirmed his support for a Green Investment Bank. This policy had wide-spread political support prior to the election and so probably would have been implemented sooner rather later.
Mr Osborne also use reiterated the fact that the bank will generate more money for investment into renewable and green technologies.
He said: "We will also take forward our plans to create a Green Investment Bank, bringing forward private investment in clean energy and green technologies."
Initial reactions and business backing have been positive for the green benefits with Climate Change Capital's vice-chairman James Cameron, saying: "We warmly welcome today's budget. It sets out an ambitious set of proposals for stimulating investment in the low carbon economy, with key policies including energy market reform, the creation of a Green Investment Bank and the introduction of a reformed upstream Climate Change Levy.
"Many of these proposals are subject to consultation, so we hope that this process helps to ensure that policies are able to deliver low carbon investment at the speed and scale required to tackle climate change, while also creating the industries and jobs of the future."
Included in the array of tax increases is an £8 per tonne increase on the land-fill tax.
The annual cost of land-filling waste will, from the start of April next year until at least 2014 increase by an additional £8-per-tonne year on year.
Landfill tax is now set at £48-per-tonne. The former chancellor Alistair Darling had not confirmed what levels of increases were planned beyond this point.
The announcement by the new chancellor has been welcomed by the majority of waste professionals as there is a standard increase for at least the next four years to plan around.
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