Green taxes 'too high'

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Households pay £19.6 billion a year too much in taxes on flights, fuel and their cars, the TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA) said.

The total burden of green taxes and charges was £24.2 billion in 2007/08 - even though the social cost of the UK's entire output of greenhouse gases was £4.6 billion, according to estimates from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The Government estimates the cost of greenhouse gas emissions as £16.3 billion - which would mean green taxes are still £7.9 billion too high, the TPA said.

Matthew Sinclair, TPA policy analyst, said: "Green taxes are set far higher than is necessary to pay for our carbon footprint, which loads an unfair burden onto hard pressed British families and businesses.

"With the credit crunch squeezing household budgets, people can ill afford this extra tax grab. It's dishonest and unjust for politicians to wrap revenue raising tax hikes in a green banner.

"The Government is talking about raising taxes even further, but our conclusions show that green taxes should be kept as they are or cut."

Households and industry are charged green taxes in the form of fuel duty, vehicle excise duty, landfill tax, the Climate Change Levy and the Renewables Obligation.

The eco-tax burden also varies significantly between suburban areas and urban districts, the TPA said. Using the IPCC estimate, campaigners said residents of the Essex town of Maldon pay £607 per person in excess green taxes, while residents in Camden pay just £62 each.

A TPA spokesman said: "Excessive green taxes hit poorer people hardest, hurt the competitiveness of British firms, cause Britain to export emissions and fall disproportionately on residents of rural and suburban areas."