Conservative 'quality of life' report

ePolitix.com Stakeholders comment on the Conservative Party's quality of life policy review.

 

Conservative response: David Cameron

Party leader David Cameron said: "This is a vital issue - we have a responsibility in this generation to make sure we provide a greener and cleaner planet for our children.

"We cannot go on as we are in terms of the way we run government and live our lives. This report is all about creating incentives for people to help them make greener choices.

"We are prepared to make tough choices. We have said very clearly that taxes on pollution will go up.

"Those increases will be offset pound for pound by reductions in family taxes to help people meet the rising cost of living.

"We will establish a family fund into which all of the new taxes on pollution will go.

"That money will be ring-fenced – no civil servants will be able to get there hands on it – and it will be independently audited so we can guarantee that increased taxes on pollution will be offset by a reduction on family taxes."

 

Labour response: Andy Burnham

Andy Burnham , chief secretary to the Treasury, said: "The Tories would have to raise green taxes by eye-watering amounts to meet the tax proposals they have been making in other areas.

"In fact, the tax rises proposed by the Tory policy commission today would only be the start of the green tax rises needed if the Tories are to fill the black hole in their spending plans without resorting to massive spending cuts.

"The Tories' problem is that they have been making proposals for unfunded tax cuts and cuts to borrowing at the same time as promising extra spending in a range of areas that would total billions of pounds. Indeed, today's report calls for more unfunded spending on high speed rail and other causes.

"The scale of the budget gap the Tories have created for themselves could only be filled by swingeing green tax rises or massive public spending cuts.
 
"There is a big difference between using incentives to help people make greener choices and what the Tories are doing by using huge green tax rises to plug the black hole created by their reckless promises elsewhere."

 

Stakeholder response: Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE)

To send a comment to The Campaign to Protect Rural England, click here

Ben Stafford, head of campaigns at the CPRE, said: "We welcome this report's strong statement that a future Conservative government will have to be resolute in its determination to infuse all of its policies with clear environmental purpose.

"The crucial test now will be how many of the Gummer and Goldsmith recommendations David Cameron takes on board. This is his chance to forge a distinctive 'blue-green agenda', but it is difficult to see how Mr Gummer's vision can be squared with the Redwood approach. It is time to choose."

 

Stakeholder response: British Retail Consortium

To send a comment to The British Retail Consortium, clickhere

BRC director general Kevin Hawkins said: "Many of these proposals for retail are ill-thought out and based on tired anti-supermarket prejudices.

"Retailers are already vigorously pursuing environmental and regeneration objectives but these proposals are largely anti-competition and anti-customer.

"David Cameron should accept that our modern, highly competitive, retail environment benefits customers who will not thank him for adopting market-stifling measures."

On retail planning restrictions, Hawkins said: "Supermarkets are not forced on unwilling neighbourhoods. Retailers engage closely with local communities.

"They only ever open where they believe there is customer demand. Without local support they will not survive in that location.

"There is already a robust system of democratic accountability for planning decisions. Local people are able to voice objections directly and local authorities exercise extensive planning powers on their behalf. 

"Where town centre retailers are struggling, it is mainly due to the combined burden of rents, service charges, rates, energy costs and wage bills which have all shot up in recent years. Imposing planning restrictions on competitors will not reduce any of these costs."

On a supplier/retailer code of conduct, Hawkins said: "There is already a code of conduct under which suppliers can complain about their dealings with supermarkets, but it hasn't worked as the Office of Fair Trading intended because suppliers haven't used it.

"We have a highly efficient food chain through which supermarkets support UK agriculture and deliver good value, high quality food to customers.

"Meddling in the market would only leave customers worse off."

On below-cost selling, Hawkins said: "Retailers do not routinely sell goods at a loss. The price to customers has to cover a string of costs including rents, wages and energy bills on top of the wholesale price.

"No business could survive if it systematically failed to cover its costs. Promotions, often run in conjunction with suppliers, occasionally involve short-term below cost selling as a way of encouraging existing customers to try alternative products. These promotions benefit suppliers by increasing their sales volumes and profits."

On compulsory car park charges, Hawkins said: "This proposal wrongly assumes that everyone lives in a town centre, close to a high street and drives a long way to so-called out-of-town stores.

"In fact most supermarkets and retail parks are located in the suburbs close to where people live.

"The Competition Commission has found that around 90 per cent of all supermarket customers travel less than 20 minutes to their regular store and 60 per cent travel less than 10 minutes.

"Travel to a nearby, suburban store will often be quicker and involve lower carbon emissions than a lengthy trek into a town centre, often already heavily congested with traffic.

"Parking charges are not the main factor determining where people choose to shop.

"We accept that life is difficult for some high street shops, struggling to cope with a spiralling cost base and shrinking margins but taxing families for doing the weekly supermarket shop is not the answer.

On carbon emissions reporting, Hawkins said: "Retailers are improving their own environmental performance and their customers' too.

"For example they have made specific and ambitious commitments on reducing the impact of bags and waste sent to landfill.

"They are developing a reliable system for indicating a product's whole-life carbon footprint to inform the buying decisions of interested customers.

"Retailers regularly publicise their environmental progress but, before companies are lumbered with bureaucratic new legal requirements to measure, gather and include environmental data in their annual reports, it must be made clear exactly what they are supposed to measure, how this can credibly be done and who wants this information."

 

Stakeholder response: Woodland Trust

To send a comment to The Woodland Trust clickhere

Lee Bruce of the Woodland Trust said: "We welcome the recommendations of the Conservatives' quality of life commission, and most notably its emphasis on sustainability.

"Coming in a week where the environment movement's collective 'green standard' has been critical of all the major parties' failings to match rhetoric with hard policy, we hope this paves the way for detailed policy commitments within the Conservative Party.

"In particular, the Trust is pleased to see a call for a moratorium on airport expansion and an integrated approach to the UK's transport system as a more joined-up solution to tackling climate change.

"Natural habitats and the surrounding landscapes are one of our greatest assets and once lost they cannot be replaced. 

"As such the report should be commended for recognising that policy can limit the negative environmental impacts of growth and that this need not be done at the expense of the UK's economic performance. 

"We also welcome the recognition of the report that the planning system has a positive role to play in fostering sustainable development.

"We now wish to see read-across between this report and the separate biodiversity policy review in delivering policies that will protect and enhance our natural environment.

"When outlining plans for a low-carbon economy the commission demonstrated how green taxes could work as a positive mechanism for enabling people to make informed and environmentally friendly decisions.

"Again this is a bold step and conveys a renewed recognition that fiscal policy can be used to put a proper cost on environmentally damaging behaviour.

"The Woodland Trust now want to see David Cameron pick up the baton and make these policy recommendations a cornerstone of his conservatism.

"This will be crucial if we are to keep the UK at the forefront of the international debate on climate change, make the transition to a low carbon economy, and show a real understanding of how sustainable development can value the natural environment."

 

Stakeholder response: Association of British Insurers

To send a comment to ABI clickhere

The ABI said: "Members of the ABI are committed to making flood insurance available where the flood risk is adequately managed.

"They will also cover existing customers where flood defences will be completed within five years. ABI’s statement of principles on flood insurance (Click here) sets out the details of the commitment."

 

Stakeholder Response: Institute of Hospitality

To send a comment to Institute of Hospitality clickhere

The Institute of Hospitality said: "While the suggestions by David Cameron designed to reduce carbon emissions show a commitment to the environment,  they do not truly address the main issue which is addressing future energy requirements and how these will be sourced. 

"In addition the impact of the proposals will be to unfairly penalise some areas of the economy  particularly those sectors that rely on tourism that has the inevitable transport implications.

"As a body that has been promoting energy efficiency and carbon emission reductions within the hospitality tourism and leisure sectors for almost ten years, we believe that it is essential for every individual and every business to concern itself with the reduction of wastage of all types and we believe that vast swathe of our sector are committed to this.

"We are unsure however, that the a policy which concerns itself with being tax neutral, and giving with one hand what is taken by the other will address the need for investing in the development of new technologies that will be necessary to create a rosier future for up and coming generations."