Less than week after announcing extensive cuts to the Active Travel funding for England, yesterday’s budget retained a 5p per litre discount on fuel tax that was introduced in March 2022 when fuel prices soared as Russia invaded Ukraine. The discount had been due to expire on 1st April 2023, however the government yesterday announced that this would be retained until April 2024, ‘saving the average driver around £100 a year’.
While this may represent a saving to drivers, the cost to the government is estimated by the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) to be £4.8bn in lost tax revenue. On revealing this freeze, the Chancellor said ‘That saves the average driver £100 next year and around £200 since the 5p cut was introduced.’ So, if it’s expected to cost £4.8bn in taxes in the year ahead, it’s likely reasonable to assume it has already cost the Treasury £4.8bn in the past year. Effectively, a £9.6bn subsidy towards driving.
The budget also announced a commitment to invest £20 billion over the next two decades – let’s call it £1 billion a year, shall we – on carbon capture and storage projects. That’s projects that hope to deal with the carbon once it’s out there, rather than preventing it at source – and there are currently significant questions about the efficacy of carbon capture projects. Indeed, some carbon carbon capture technology is actually used to aid in the extraction of oil. Most climate activists are focussed on reducing carbon emissions, and increasing carbon storage through habitat preservation and restoration.
Active travel – walking and cycling – helps reduce carbon emissions by replacing car journeys with foot and cycle trips. Even if it’s e-bikes replacing car journeys, it’s a lower carbon footprint than a car. Walking and cycling also keep people healthier, in both mind and body, which reduces the burden on health services (something that doesn’t get a mention in this budget, save for £10 million over two years to suicide prevention charities. There’s also £400 million to ‘help those who are forced to leave work because of a health condition such as back pain or a mental health issue’). Not entirely unrelated, the government also announced a £63 million fund to support leisure centres struggling with the cost of heating swimming pools.
If only there were great, safe, appealing places to walk and cycle, wherever you lived? Perhaps then people would have access to recreational and active travel opportunities that would support their health, rehabilitation, and access to work? And it’s not all about building infrastructure, or subsiding bike purchases – there is also the policy choice of opening up the countryside, giving people greater access to walk, ride, swim, camp… whatever they might want to do.
The government has cut £380 million from promised Active Travel funding, but found many billions to support driving and the fossil-fuel based economy.
I’m ignoring the whole pension/£1m tax break thing. You can decide for yourself if this is a budget for the 1%. But this is not a budget for the planet, or our health, or even our mental well-being. For as long as the government continues to make policy decisions that support fossil fuels while cutting funding for low-carbon alternatives, we’re heading in the wrong direction.
