26/03/10 The Environmental Industries Commission (EIC) were not impressed with the Budget claiming that the government has failed to sieze upon the opportunity to encourage consumers to make green choices.
The trade association for the UK’s environmental technology and services industry, has over 270 Member Companies. EIC represents the main environmental sectors (climate change, water, air, contaminated land, waste, transport, etc). It has the support of leading politicians from all three major political parties, industrialists, trade union leaders, environmentalists, and academics. For further information visit: www.eic-uk.co.uk
Commenting on the Budget, Danny Stevens, Policy Director of The Environmental Industries Commission (EIC) said: “For years the Government has failed to make proper use of fiscal measures to encourage the purchase of environmental goods and services. With this year’s Budget it has missed yet another opportunity to put an effective price on pollution through the tax regime and, therefore, done little to encourage investment in environmentally sustainable behaviour. This could have been achieved at a low cost to the Treasury through innovative funding mechanisms such as Tax Increment Financing : mobilising private sector investment through, inter alia, an Environmental Investment Institution; and targeted fiscal and monetary incentives for green technologies.
Tax Increment Financing works on the principle that the supply of new or improved infrastructure usually leads both to new development and to an increase in the value of surrounding property, both of which serve to increase the level of property taxation in the area. Within a designated TIF area, this anticipated increased taxation (the ‘tax increment’) is captured and used to fund the infrastructure that has been provided.
For further information please contact:
Danny Stevens, EIC Policy Director, 0207 935 1675 / 07793355472
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