Reacting to the Budget speech, Ben Stafford, Head of Public Affairs at WWF-UK, said:
“The Chancellor’s announcement of an additional £140 million for the repair and maintenance of flood defences is welcome. But Mr Osborne missed an opportunity to set out a longer term approach to tackling the increased risk of flooding, which should include incentivising farmers and others to manage land so that water is retained upstream for longer, rather than rushing into our lowlands and urban areas. Using our natural assets better to mitigate the worst impacts of extreme weather is the right long-term approach for the economy, communities and the environment.”
“The Chancellor emphasised that this was a Budget for those who build, invest and manufacture. But his Budget Statement will have left those in the growing low carbon sector uncertain about the Government’s support for their businesses. Mr Osborne could have sent a strong signal that he backs both UK leadership on climate change and the industries that will take us to a low carbon future by confirming his support for the Fourth Carbon Budget and its ambitious emission reduction targets for the 2020s. That announcement did not come today – we need to hear it soon to give the necessary boost to a low carbon sector that already employs close to a million people in the UK.”
“While the competitiveness concerns linked to the UK carbon floor price are understandable, the Government’s decision to freeze the floor price, combined with other recent policy decisions, is improving the economic outlook for the UK’s polluting coal power stations. The Government must come up with a clear plan to avoid prolonging the life of our dirtiest power stations at a time when we need to be moving rapidly towards a low carbon future.”
