Daily Telegraph
Quote:
Tories unveil green 'showroom tax' on cars
By Toby Helm, Chief Political Correspondent
Last Updated: 6:01pm BST 09/09/2007
Plans for a “showroom tax” on new cars - which would hit 4X4 “gas guzzlers” the hardest - will be unveiled by David Cameron’s “green advisers” this week.
The radical proposal for a graded tax on car sales - which could add up to £2,000 to the cost of a family saloon - aims to persuade drivers to opt for low carbon options such as the Toyota Prius or a new generation of all-electric cars.
The controversial idea is expected to form the centrepiece of an 800-page report to be published on Thursday by the Tories’ Quality of Life group, led by Zac Goldsmith, the multi-millionaire environmentalist, and former Tory environment secretary John Gummer.
The document will also suggest a blitz of new regulations to prevent household gadgets such as fridges, televisions and other appliances wasting electricity.
Under the Tory plan for a greener world, all electrical goods, such as plasma screen televisions, that exceed precise limits on the permissible level of energy they use could be banned from sale.
Manufacturers would also have to fit televisions and other equipment with devices that ensure they switch themselves off after a certain time, rather than remain on standby.
Some 2 per cent of Britain’s total electricity use is currently taken up by appliances left on stand-by rather than being switched off.
Tory sources said Mr Cameron was determined to take forward many the ideas in the document to ensure his party goes into the next election as “the greenest” party.
To change habits in the home the document also suggests offering tax reductions worth thousands of pounds to householders if they install energy-efficient gadgets.
The reliefs would come in the form of reductions in council tax and rebates on stamp duty for the most energy conscious homeowners.
Mr Goldsmith told BBC1’s Sunday AM that the drive behind his group’s proposals on domestic energy use was to introduce financial motivations for householders to go green.
“To upgrade your home is always going to be a disruptive process, so the best time to do that is when it changes ownership - that’s when you’re going to be removing your furniture, carpets, curtains or whatever,” he said.
“At that point it makes sense to make these various changes, so we are saying we should offer very generous stamp duty rebates if your home is passed on in the best possible condition.
“If you do that, it becomes less of an ethical decision and more of an investment and financial decision...
“The principal focus is on energy. We can achieve massive reductions from very little investment, and from the homeowners’ point of view that does pretty quickly lead to savings on your bills.”
Controversially, the group will also suggest scrapping Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of the nation’s economic health in favour of a model that measures people’s happiness, as drawn up by Friends of the Earth.
I wonder if this is more to do with the government have run out of money, they are running out of fuel options, left it to late to do anything about our energy needs, and it’s any excuse to charge us all even more tax.
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