fiscal incentives for sustainable homes
New fiscal incentives are needed to discourage environmentally damaging behaviour and to enable and encourage households to adopt more sustainable lifestyles. This project sets out to explore what fiscal incentives could be used to influence household resource consumption, including energy, water and waste.
New policies are required to meet the UK’s national climate change targets and the government’s commitments in the areas of water and waste. Domestic energy use constitutes 28 per cent of the UK’s carbon emissions and is rising. Demand management of water use continues to be a significant challenge and the government’s major new house building initiative, the Sustainable Communities Plan, will place further pressure on resources in the South East, where the bulk of the housing growth is proposed. Achieving government objectives for resource efficiency will be almost impossible unless household resource efficiency plays its full part.
Government needs to set the framework to take the pain out of being green and the tax system has a crucial role to play in making that happen. In the run up to the Budget and Comprehensive Spending Review, Green Alliance will be making the case for a package of green tax measures linked to behaviour change.
As part of this project, The Policy Studies Institute and Green Alliance Associate, Rebecca Willis, were commissioned to produce a report, A Green Living Initiative, which puts forward an integrated package of measures linking tax incentives to clear information, advice and branding, designed to engage households in taking action. The report strengthens the case for new fiscal incentives and the need for the Treasury to up its game on the environment.
For more information, contact Tracy Carty.
Acknowledgements
Green Alliance would like to thank the Environment Agency, the National Insulation Association, the Pilkington Energy Efficiency Trust, RSPB and Thames Water for their support of this work.
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