There’s an enormous hunger for green news this week. So it made sense that Alistair Darling’s Pre-Budget Report at least sounded environmentally friendly, with an additional £200 million for energy efficiency promised from April.
The Chancellor said he will help “up to 125,000 homes” replace inefficient boilers, and he guaranteed more cash for wind turbine and solar panel users (at least for those plugged into the national grid). He will also try to boost the number of electric cars and vans by exempting the former from company car tax for 5 years, and allowing a “one hundred per cent first year capital allowance” for the latter.
Low carbon emissions remain the priority in Copenhagen, however, so the Chancellor must hope his promise of £160m for public and private investment in low carbon projects will slip nicely into the inside pages of tomorrow’s newspapers – along with the £90 million promised for European green infrastructure projects.
But these green measures look suspiciously like camouflage. As Benedict Brogan notes, most of the PBR was designed to stuff the Tories at every turn. The Chancellor’s environmental agenda is no different – if the Cameroons try to match it, they’ll risk losing backbench support. If they choose not to, climate change lobbyists (who will no doubt return from Denmark with renewed vigour) will pounce on the decision as evidence of Conservative anti-green thinking.
So how can the Tories respond? Well, there’s really only one option: in this economic climate, any green counter-attack will have to focus on measures that guarantee immediate financial reward to British families. The boiler replacement scheme – more than any of Darling’s other proposals – is good for the environment and good for bill-payers, some of whom waste £200 a year inefficiently heating their houses. Cameron must top it.
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