Philip Johnston, Ben Fogle:

The Chancellor will use today’s Budget to launch a consultation over a tax on single-use plastic packaging. It’s refreshing to see the Government formally recognise that something must be done to tackle the plastic scourge that has plagued the planet for decades. Philip Hammond should be commended for being bold enough to consider a ground-breaking intervention, but I’m not convinced punitive taxation is the way to drive change.

History tells us that you change behaviour by providing a positive alternative to the status quo, not by introducing piecemeal tax measures.

Tobacco is a perfect example. The biggest factor in the massive reduction in smoking in the UK over the past 15 years was the introduction of smoke-free public places in 2007. When people saw the positive experience that a smokefree environment created, it made perfect sense for hundreds of thousands of smokers to kick the habit. Following the ban’s introduction there was almost a 25 per cent increase in attempts to quit made via NHS stop-smoking services. An extra 300,000 people are thought to have tried to quit immediately.

The introduction of the smoking ban was a huge news event and forced everyone to invest in a positive future without smoke. It did more for tobacco control than incremental duty rises ever could.

Similarly, Britain currently has some of the highest alcohol taxes in Europe yet we remain world-class performers when it comes to binge drinking. The UK pays the highest rate of beer duty in Europe at around 52p per pint. This is more than 13 times as much as the duty rate in Germany or Spain. Despite this, Britain is among the 15 worst countries for binge drinking.

Sadly taxation may not be the silver bullet that we all crave for plastic. Like tobacco and alcohol duty increases, there is a real concern that a small tax on throwaway plastic packaging would be absorbed by the consumer who will not be sufficiently motivated to change their consumption habits.

The Chancellor must think more radically if we are to end the lunacy of throwaway plastic packaging.

This year I have joined calls for a plastic-free aisle in supermarkets because it’s clear that the UK’S shops have to be part of the solution. This is the brainchild of the campaign group A Plastic Planet, and is part of the positive vision of the future that consumers are desperate to realise. An aisle that stocks only goods free from plastic packaging would help the nation’s shoppers envision a realisable future untainted by the worst excesses of mankind’s decades-long addiction to plastic.

A single-use plastic tax may raise extra revenue for the Treasury and generate some headlines, but is unlikely to drive a lasting shift away from single-use plastic pollution. Instead, Mr Hammond should consider a national business rate relief scheme for retailers who do the right thing. This means giving a financial incentive for UK supermarkets to introduce a plastic-free aisle.

The time for change is now. The Chancellor must act decisively to provide a real incentive for retailers and consumers to confine single-use plastic to history.