Institute responds to 2024 Budget

Esin Serin, Policy Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said: 

“This Budget unfortunately fails to offer the kind of changes that would unleash public and private investment and drive sustainable growth. The £120m boost for the Green Industries Growth Accelerator is a step in the right direction, but there needs to be far more investment to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels.

“If the Government wants the private sector to invest more, then it needs to be serious about improving the enabling environment. We pointed out that an additional £26bn a year in public investment is needed towards the sustainable economy to drive improvements in productivity and growth. The Chancellor’s Budget falls far short of this. 

“Freezing the rate of fuel duty for another year shows a lack of long-term thinking about the role of the tax system in decarbonising the UK economy. The Chancellor should be making more of the tax system to drive the transition away from fossil fuels, while futureproofing government revenues to ongoing structural changes in the economy.” 

ENDS