Taxed Enough - Fairer taxation for the UK

Bold or all 'Hot Air'

We have had Gordon Browns latest and perhaps last budget review as he looks to move onwards and upwards in his career but is he doing enough in terms of Global Warming? He would argue that he has set in motion taxes to encourage people to become greener in their lifestyles but is there a shadow over hanging these tax rises...is it all just 'Hot Air'?? We await to see if the extra revenues from these tax rises and new 'green taxes' going to be invested or channelled into helping business and consumers go green or is just another way for Gordon Brown to cream off more of our hard earned cash?

Climate Change

Both the Conservatives and Lib Dems have called for taxation to reflect behaviour and its impact on Climate Change, to some degree the chancellor has attempted to address this but we would argue that he has missed what many people believe is his last opportunity to reshape the UK's system of taxation.

Browns pre-Budget address in November highlighted further increases in taxation, its focus on taxing the luxuries an affluent western society takes for granted, whilst most people would agree that higher taxation is a positive way to address climate change, many of Browns tax rises are just the means to an ends (to raise more and more revenue). Brown should have used his budget to address the causes of climate change at the 'cause' and not the 'end user'. By aiming tax increases directly at the end consumer Gordon Brown has taken the easy way out, at first glance it appears he is prepared to do something and 'put the wheels in motion' however in effect he has failed to assert real leadership on the matter. He should have looked at the root causes:

• Vehicle manufacturers - should be encouraged, even forced to develop vehicles that are more environmentally friendly, that exploit new hybrid technologies, and where ever possible reduce the overall Carbon impact the vehicle will have over it's lifetime.
   
  Disincentives in the form of increased taxation should be aimed directly at manufacturers producing fossil fuel hungry vehicles, not at the end consumer. There is curently no way near enough consumer choice provided by car manufacturers. If Gordon Brown is not prepared to be bold and encourage manufacturers to think 'greener' then he has no right punishing the UK motorist!
  
  
• House Buliders - should be encouraged, even forced to design and build carbon neutral homes today. A decade is too long to wait, the technologies are available today yet only a handful of new homes have been built in this way whilst home building is progressing at an astonishing rate.
  
  
• Airlines should be given tax breaks when they purchase and update their fleet with greener aircraft and aircraft manufacturers must be pushed into producing cleaner planes with taxation weighted according to efficiency and carbon outputs.