24 November 2008
Pre-Budget Report: No 'green stimulus' for sustainable transport
Transform Scotland [1] today criticised the Pre-Budget Report for failing to deliver the 'green new deal' demanded to tackle the joint problems of financial crisis and climate chaos.
Colin Howden, Director of Transform Scotland said:
"The Chancellor's announcement will do nothing to deliver sustainable transport. Bringing forward £300m of orders for rail carriages is obviously welcome, but Mr Darling will fool only himself if he thinks this alone will bring about a 'green stimulus' for the transport sector. Given that the remainder of the transport spending package appears to be reserved for new motorways, the net effect of the Chancellor's plans may even be to worsen the prospects for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector." [2]
"It is welcome that the Chancellor has kept the 'car purchase tax' elements of the reform of Vehicle Excise Duty, albeit that this will not now be implemented until 2010."Given that the cut in VAT means a loss to the Treasury from tax on fuel purchases, it is long overdue for the Government to re-commence implementing increases in fuel duty at least in line with inflation. It is important that the Government sets out future increases in fuel duty as, in the absence of any action from the government to deliver nationwide road pricing, this is the only long-term method in which road use can be made to pay for its external costs." [3]
ENDS
Notes to Editors
[1] Transform Scotland is the national sustainable transport alliance, bringing together rail, bus and shipping operators, local authorities, national environment and conservation groups, businesses and local transport groups.
[2] §6.13 of the PBR says: "£700 million to advance the Department for Transport’s (DfT) existing plans to increase capacity on the motorways and other critical highways, and to accelerate the delivery of up to 200 new carriages on the rail network"; Box 7.1 says "£300 million to accelerate the delivery of up to 200 new carriages".
[3] The University of Leeds' Institute for Transport Studies report Surface Transport Costs & Charges, in what was probably the most comprehensive report of its kind in the UK, reported that “For the British road sector as a whole, taxes and charges in 1998 covered between one third to a half of their relevant marginal social and environmental costs” - <http://www.its.leeds.ac.uk/projects/STCC/surface_transport.html>.
END OF NEWS RELEASE