Brown Attacked Over Environment Tax Failure

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

13 February 2002

A scathing report issued on Tuesday by the Commons Environmental Audit Select Committee has criticised UK Chancellor Gordon Brown for failing to fulfil his 1997 election manifesto pledges on 'green' taxes.

'We regret the fact that the Treasury has retreated from a strategic commitment to environmental tax reform, by diluting the language used in the original statement of intent,' the report stated.

The Committee argued yesterday that few of the environmental measures contained in Gordon Brown's November pre-Budget report were new, and that the government has stalled in its efforts to 'shift the burden' of taxation onto environmentally damaging areas.

Speaking on Monday, the Environmental Audit Committee's Chairman, Tory MP John Horam observed that: 'The Government's zeal for environmental tax reform appears to have fizzled out, and the dead hand of the Treasury is in danger of damping further progress.'

The report expressed concern that ministers gave no justification for the shelving of a pesticide tax in favour of industry self-regulation, and condemned the delay in imposition of a planned landfill tax, which will now come into effect in 2004. It also suggested that the Government should consider the introduction of an incinerator tax in order to prevent this highly polluting method of waste disposal from becoming the main alternative to landfill sites.

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