Labour's green guru fails to back car tax shake-up

Lord Turner, who chairs the committee which advises the Government on climate change, stressed that environmental taxes should be "intelligently designed" and signalled well in advance so people could change their lifestyle to avoid them.

Labour and Tory MPs, who are furious that vehicle excise duty rises, in excess of £200 by 2010 for some models, are being imposed on more than nine million cars registered since spring 2001, are likely to seize on the peer's comments as criticism of the shake-up.

In an interview with the Evening Standard, former CBI chief Lord Turner of Ecchinswell, backed green taxes to address global warming and praised Labour's "showroom" tax but significantly did not offer support for VED rises for older cars.

While repeatedly stressing that he did not want to comment on the current row on environmental levies, he said: "The ones least controversial are always the ones that people feel they can avoid because they come at a point of decision.

"For instance, one of the things that the Chancellor did in this year's Budget was to increase this first year VED distinction so when you buy a car it goes up to £900 for a big gas guzzler and a very low figure for a small car.

"That one is reasonable and uncontroversial. As much as possible, we should set these things out in advance.

"Looking forward over the long term, we certainly do see a role for intelligently designed taxes such as firstyear VED to encourage people to make the different decisions that they can make."

In France, the peer, who clashed with Mr Brown with his landmark report on pensions, said, a "showroom" tax had seen the number of gas guzzlers purchased fall dramatically.

MPs are calling for Mr Brown to perform yet another U-turn and make the road tax increases apply to new cars, so people can choose a greener model and pay lower VED, rather than hitting cars up to seven years old that people already own.

Lord Turner also launched a stinging attack on the failure to make London more cycle-friendly and called for a dramatic increase in special bike ways "physically segregated" from cars.

In what may be seen as criticism of former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, he said: "We still do not have cycle ways like Amsterdam and Berlin.

"We have bits of paint on the ground with buses and taxis occupying it."

The peer, who regularly cycles from his home in Kensington to his City or Westminster offices, added: "Given how little distance we have made in terms of cycle ways, the increase in cycling has been extraordinary and that suggests that it could go much, much further if we simply invest behind that."

Lord Turner also made clear that he believes people do not need to drive gas-guzzling "Chelsea tractors" in the capital.

"Certainly one can manage perfectly well in London without huge cars," he said.

He also believes that the electric car could be part of London's green revolution.

"There is a real possibility that in 20 years time, a very significant proportion of London traffic could be running on electricity," he added.

Town halls, though, already had to start considering how to put in the infrastructure for a new generation of electric cars including recharging them, possibly at parking meters.