Pre-Budget: Green homes for all?
The headline that grabbed the press today about Gordon's pre-budget speech was his pledge that all homes should be carbon-neutral in ten years time.
While you all sit back and think about how to deliver that one (he didn't help by giving no details), he also said that in the short term he would give a limited-term stamp duty relief to zero-carbon homes. Building Schools for the Future projects would have to meet BREEAM Very Good or Excellent ratings. These 'green' measures were by far the most extreme out of a speech that I thought was surprisingly tame on the subject of green taxes. A mere £5 extra tax on flights, a few pence on petrol...
And for those of you who care about these things, the introduction of any Planning Gain Supplement will be delayed till 2009 to have time for a fresh consultation.
Well, I think it is a pretty weak attempt to gain green points off the Tories but it is noticeable that Cameron has not come out saying that he would have been any more stringent, for fear of losing his voters. the green stuff grabbed the headlines, but it amounts to precious little.
While you all sit back and think about how to deliver that one (he didn't help by giving no details), he also said that in the short term he would give a limited-term stamp duty relief to zero-carbon homes. Building Schools for the Future projects would have to meet BREEAM Very Good or Excellent ratings. These 'green' measures were by far the most extreme out of a speech that I thought was surprisingly tame on the subject of green taxes. A mere £5 extra tax on flights, a few pence on petrol...
And for those of you who care about these things, the introduction of any Planning Gain Supplement will be delayed till 2009 to have time for a fresh consultation.
Well, I think it is a pretty weak attempt to gain green points off the Tories but it is noticeable that Cameron has not come out saying that he would have been any more stringent, for fear of losing his voters. the green stuff grabbed the headlines, but it amounts to precious little.
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