JOIN OUR GREEN BRITAIN REVOLUTION!
A CRUSADE to save our environment and boost the UK economy by £21billion starts in the Express today.
We are calling on Boris Johnson to lead the world revolution on green issues with bold initiatives including
the scrapping of VAT on eco-friendly products and giving back more space to nature.
It’s a crusade we know you support because two thirds of Britons fear for the future of the planet, our exclusive poll shows today. Most also favour making polluting firms pay more tax, as well as worrying about climate change and wildlife declines.
The Daily Express today calls on Boris Johnson to show world leadership on the issue before June’s G7 summit in Cornwall and the crunch COP26 climate change UN summit in Glasgow later this year.
Our Green Britain Needs You campaign has already won the backing of the leaders of the biggest environmental groups, who represent more than eight million people.
That is more than the one million members of political parties, even allowing for people who belong to more than one body.
Our supporters include the National Trust, RSPB, Wildlife Trusts, WWF, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the British Trust for Ornithology as well as industry bodies such as Solar Energy UK and the Federation of Master Builders.
To begin with we want a shake-up of the tax system so that products which help fight climate change by pumping out zero, or close to zero, emissions pay zero VAT.
The Zero for Zero campaign has been triggered by tax contradictions, such as:
Electric cars, which are intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, incur 20 per cent VAT just like petrol and diesel vehicles.
Solar panels too can attract 20 per cent VAT – yet burning coal or gas at home carries a tax penalty of just five per cent.
Refurbishing or insulating your home will cost you an extra 20 per cent in VAT but building a new house is zero-rated.
Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, said: “The vast majority of the British people are desperate to do the right thing for the environment but all too often the tax regime makes it difficult and expensive.
“The UK Government now has a great opportunity to move quickly and cut taxes on energy-saving products and renewable energy products like solar panels to make it easier and cheaper for people to do their bit for a greener Britain.”
He added: “It’s been talked about for years and years. So, let’s get on with it.” Industry leaders gave us their backing too. Chris Hewett, chief executive of trade body Solar Energy UK, said: “Clean energy is a necessity and it is important that people are not penalised for helping the planet.
“Scrapping tax on solar panels and batteries would cut costs to consumers and boost demand, creating green jobs across the country.”
While Philip New, boss of Energy Systems Catapult innovation centre, said: “With only thirty years to go before we must reach net zero emissions, the incentives to reduce carbon across the economy are a mess.
“Where strong incentives are in place, they have helped drive coal off the electricity system and reduced waste going to landfill. In other areas, such as domestic heating, aviation and agriculture we are effectively subsidising pollution.”
A report by the economics consultancy Cambridge Econometrics last year predicted a 0.8 per cent boost to the country’s GDP – about £21 billion – from a “modest” package of green measures with a cut in VAT of just five per cent.
A study for the Federation of Master Builders forecast a £15 billion boost from a reduction in VAT on housing renovation and repair work from 20 to five per cent.
Brexit has given the Government the perfect opportunity to reform VAT. Previously it claimed EU rules stopped it from unilaterally lowering the tax.
Dale Vince, founder of green energy supplier Ecotricity which has 200,000 customers, writes in his book Manifesto: “We need to use the tax system to encourage people to do the right thing.
“Green energy bizarrely pays a carbon tax, even though it produces none. Large energy users are exempt from the same tax, even though they use fossil fuels. Green energy and energy-efficient equipment should be zero-rated forVAT.
“We spend £50 billion a year bringing fossil fuels to Britain just so we can burn them. Yet renewable energy is universally available and will never run out.”
The Daily Express is also calling on the Government to make more space for nature to help reverse alarming declines in wildlife including birds as familiar as sparrows.
Mr Johnson has pledged to protect 30 per cent of UK land by 2030, and claims that 26 per cent is safeguarded via areas such as National Parks. But they are landscape designations, and protection or restoration of nature is not a legal requirement.
Our Savanta ComRes poll shows greater help for wildlife would be welcomed by the public, with three in four saying that nature
and green spaces have helped them through the pandemic.
Mr Bennett, whose Wildlife Trusts want 30 per cent of UK land and sea protected for wildlife by 2030, added: “It was really good that the Prime Minister signed up to the pledge to protect 30 per cent of the UK’s land but it was wrong for Downing Street to say 26 per cent is already safe.
“In fact, the only designation we have specifically about nature is for Sites of Special Scientific Interest.
“They cover roughly ten per cent of the land and according to [Government adviser] Natural England about half of them are in an unfavourable condition.
“There is no legislation requiring the recovery of nature.We want a new landscape designation for England called Wildbelt.
“This would be for putting land into nature’s recovery, such as through the creation of wildlife corridors, natural regeneration of woodland, restoration of wetlands and river corridors, and rewilding.”
An Energy Systems Catapult spokesman said: “Taxes and subsidies should be consistent and encourage everyone to make and buy low-carbon products and services.
“Our current policies don’t do this. Now is the time to sort this out.
“This can help us grow the clean industries of the future, and more UK jobs producing electric vehicles, upgrading our buildings and in low-carbon industrial clusters.”