Member Article

Subsidise public transport with fuel duty, says report

A group of MPs have called for the money from fuel duty to be used to cut the price of public transport according to the BBC.

The Environmental Audit Committee published a report to consider the environmental impact of the budget, and accused the government of giving green taxes “a bad name.”

Joan Walley, chair of the committee called for the government to make more links between taxing polluters and investing in green alternatives to remove public perceptions that environmental taxes are merely an opportunity to “pinch extra pennies from people.”

The group were highly critical of the government’s decision to cut a penny from fuel duty with no effort to incentivise alternatives which are less damaging to the environment. The reports also said that changes to air passenger duty would not cut emissions.

The public is becoming increasingly cynical about green taxes, which were introduced by the Conservative government in 1993 to reduce emissions, yet many programmes still fail to provide sustainable alternatives.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .