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Will we be seeing red or seeing green?

March 11th, 2008

Alastair Darling’s first budget tomorrow is being referred to as their ‘green budget’. He is expected to increase the price of petrol by 2p a litre, impose a ‘showroom tax’ and a higher vehicle excise duty on those cars deemed to be gas guzzlers.

However, The Independent reports today that the ‘green taxes’ are to be delayed due to the concern that Britain is heading for a recession. However, the usual increase of taxes on alcohol is expected to take immediate effect.

An interactive survey by The Times Online confirms that people are very concerned about the economy with many people citing the main concerns as the soaring gas and petrol prices, higher council tax and bigger supermarket bills. Sadly, pensioners are struggling to cope with the rising costs of essential basic items like bread and eggs according to this report.

Although Mr Darling may decide to delay some of his tax increases tomorrow, I am sure that they will be introduced at some stage. The important issue to me is that the revenue generated from these increased and newly introduced taxes, imposed in the name of improving the environment, needs to be visibly seen to be being used to help our environment, support green schemes and encourage people to use public transport. The congestion charge, although hated by most people, is an example of where we can clearly see that money generated is being ploughed back into improving the bus network in London. And the same needs to be seen with the governments increased revenue.

People need to be encouraged to make their homes and cars more environmentally-friendly by being offered subsidies, for example installing and using solar power panels and by buying hybrid cars (although I’m not sure anyone would want to buy a new car if the ‘showroom tax’ comes in). Some car insurance companies like Swiftcover offer a discount for those who purchase more environmentally-friendly hybrid cars like the Honda Civic, Honda Insight or Lexus RX. Many other companies also encourage customers to buy green. You can now buy solar powered lights, sheeps wool bedding and even solar powered bricks that can light up a path at night.

Rather than seeing red, let’s hope the budget tomorrow encourages us to be a little more green.

Entry Filed under: politics, green issues, insurance