Budget analysis – Environment

Setting the national Budget will always be a balancing act between competing interests and endeavours and few could have been more so than Alastair Darling's 2010 Budget. Faced with the need to reconcile the desire to woo pre-election voters with the need to tax more spend less and encourage continued economic recovery the Chancellor can be forgiven for charting a relatively safe and steady course. The area of environmental policy was further becalmed by the near-stalemate in international negotiations in Copenhagen and success to date in meeting the initial Carbon Budget targets. As ever there were some minor tweaks to existing policies which are set out overleaf in Table 1 which also includes details of previously announced changes coming into effect soon.

The Conservatives have indicated what they would do in the following ...