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BBC News - 12/03/08

Chancellor Alistair Darling is expected to announce higher taxes on alcohol and the most polluting cars when he unveils his first Budget later.

Reports suggest he may also replace air passenger duty with a tax on flights.

But the BBC has learned he will delay a planned 2p rise in fuel duty, after crude oil prices hit a record high.

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Protecting the environment

Tackling climate change is one of the most serious challenges that the world faces. The Government is committed to delivering strong, environmentally sustainable growth and leading the international response to this challenge.

This year's Budget sets out the actions the Government is taking to ensure that the UK is well-placed to succeed in the low-carbon economy of the future including:

* laying the ground work for the introduction of five year carbon budgets, and announces that the first carbon budgets will be set alongside Budget 2009;

* pre-announcing that fuel duty rates will rise by 0.5 pence per litre above indexation on 1 April 2010, in order to reduce polluting emissions and fund public services. However, the Government will postpone the 2 pence per litre fuel duty increase expected on 1 April 2008 until 1 October 2008;

* significant reform to car vehicle excise duty (VED) rates to encourage the development and purchase of lower carbon emitting cars, with the introduction of new bands from 2009 to reward drivers of the cleanest cars and higher first year rates in 2010-11 to influence purchasing choices. As a result of these changes the majority of drivers will be better, or no worse off;

* supporting the most sustainable biofuels by removing the duty incentive and increasing support through the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation;

* increasing the climate change levy in line with inflation, in order to maintain the environmental incentive effect;

* announcing that the Government will introduce legislation and impose a charge on single-use carrier bags if retailers do not take voluntary action;

* building on the announcement in the Pre-Budget Report 2007, that air passenger duty will be replaced by a duty payable per plane, environmental signals will be further enhanced by increasing the per plane duty by 10 per cent in its second year of operation;

* auctioning 100 per cent of allowances to large electricity producers in Phase III of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.

* announcing that the Government will introduce legislation and impose a charge on single-use carrier bags if retailers do not take voluntary action;

Budget 2008 announces reform of the vehicle excise duty (VED) structure. From 2009, VED will be restructured with new bands, based on carbon dioxide so that people gain financially by choosing the car with the best environmental performance in a given group. The financial difference between the most and least polluting cars will increase, so that making a small change in car emissions has a greater financial impact. From 2010, there will be a new higher first-year rate based on carbon dioxide emissions, to influence purchasing choices. Specific changes include:

• six new VED bands from 2009-10 ? including a new top band (band M) for the most polluting cars that emit more than 255g CO2 per km;
• reducing the standard rate of VED, in 2009-10, for all new and existing cars that emit 150g of CO2 per km or less, and increasing the standard rate of VED on the most polluting cars to ?425;
• from 2010-11, extending the zero rate of VED, during the first year of ownership, to all new cars that emit 130g CO2 per km or less ? the EU proposed target for average new car emissions in 2012;
• holding the first-year rate for all new cars that emit between 131 and 160g CO2 per km equal to the standard rate in 2010-11;
• introducing for the most polluting cars a first-year rate of ?950 in 2010-11;
• and providing a ?15 or ?20 discount for alternatively fuelled cars in 2009-10, and ?10 in 2010-11; and aligning the alternative fuel and standard rates of VED in 2011.

RenewableCandy wrote:The VED thingie is all very well but what if we all bought super-clean wheels? Where would HMG get its cash from then? Doesn't that give them an incentive to encourage us to drive dirty (preferably while smoking) so they can carry on picking up the cash??

Steve Houseman wrote:plastic bags

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/e ... 508263.ece

"Series of blunders turned the plastic bag into global villain"

(dont remember where I found this link) .

I take a lot of plastic bags and use them as bin liners as apparently do many others :

"... John Lewis added that a scheme in Ireland had reduced plastic bag usage, but sales of bin liners had increased 400 per cent."

RenewableCandy wrote:The VED thingie is all very well but what if we all bought super-clean wheels? Where would HMG get its cash from then? Doesn't that give them an incentive to encourage us to drive dirty (preferably while smoking) so they can carry on picking up the cash??

Steve Houseman wrote:I take a lot of plastic bags and use them as bin liners as apparently do many others :

"... John Lewis added that a scheme in Ireland had reduced plastic bag usage, but sales of bin liners had increased 400 per cent."