Response to UK Budget 2021

Commenting on the budget, Josh Burke, Senior Policy Fellow at Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said: 

“This Budget was the first major test of the UK’s green recovery programme and the last budget before the UK hosts COP26. Whilst the green recovery package is relatively small by European standards, announcements on the national infrastructure bank (NIB) are welcome as it will be an important institution in driving a just and sustainable recovery programme. It is vital that that net-zero is at the heart of the NIB’s remit, whilst playing a major role in financing local climate action and delivering the levelling up agenda. Underpinning this should be a mandate that all borrowing be in the form of green sovereign bonds which can help to deliver support for both a green recovery and social renewal through greater job creation. On the freezing of fuel duty, the tax base is likely to be further eroded as the transport sector decarbonises and consumers switch to electric vehicles.  Any changes to fuel duty need to be part of comprehensive tax reform that addresses these structural transformations. Tinkering with fuel duty in isolation will only be seen as technocratic fiddling incommensurate with the scale of the challenge that climate change poses.”