In an interview with the BBC’s Andrew Neil, Green Party leader Natalie Bennett said that Osborne had found some ‘reasons to fling some money around’, but that his Autumn Statement doesn’t direct it to the poor and disadvantaged.
Nor, she added, has the chancellor addressed climate change or the environmental crises we face, despite this year being being our warmest on record.
Natalie said that the chancellor’s Autumn Statement was made up of the ‘wrong spending for the wrong reasons’, and that she’d like to have seen more investment in warm, affordable homes instead of Osborne’s cut in air passenger duty and the freezing of fuel duty.
In response to the chancellor’s Autumn Statement, Dr Doug Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace UK, said George Osborne had outlined a ‘1980s-style road-building programme and subsidies/tax breaks for fossil fuel giants’, when he should instead have used the Autumn Statement to map out job creation and a strategy to make homes ‘fit for the 21st century.’
‘In what looks like the warmest year on record, George Osborne has strikingly failed to shield the UK economy from climate change and grasp the opportunities of a modern clean-tech economy.
‘Some communities will be relieved to hear that flood budgets have now been allocated to projects, but the bill is set to outstrip the funding pot as temperatures continue to rise. The government must commit to tackling the symptoms and the causes of our increased rainfall by dealing with global warming emissions.
‘The chancellor should have announced a nationwide programme to upgrade Britain’s draughty homes, making them fit for the 21st century and creating jobs in every constituency. Instead we get a 1980s-style road building programme and subsidies/tax breaks for fossil fuel giants that will entrench the high carbon economy we should be moving away from.’
Dr Doug Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace UK
In an interview with the BBC’s Andrew Neil, Green Party leader Natalie Bennett said that Osborne had found some ‘reasons to fling some money around’, but that his Autumn Statement doesn’t direct it to the poor and disadvantaged.
Nor, she added, has the chancellor addressed climate change or the environmental crises we face, despite this year being being our warmest on record.
Natalie said that the chancellor’s Autumn Statement was made up of the ‘wrong spending for the wrong reasons’, and that she’d like to have seen more investment in warm, affordable homes instead of Osborne’s cut in air passenger duty and the freezing of fuel duty.
In response to the chancellor’s Autumn Statement, Dr Doug Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace UK, said George Osborne had outlined a ‘1980s-style road-building programme and subsidies/tax breaks for fossil fuel giants’, when he should instead have used the Autumn Statement to map out job creation and a strategy to make homes ‘fit for the 21st century.’
‘In what looks like the warmest year on record, George Osborne has strikingly failed to shield the UK economy from climate change and grasp the opportunities of a modern clean-tech economy.
‘Some communities will be relieved to hear that flood budgets have now been allocated to projects, but the bill is set to outstrip the funding pot as temperatures continue to rise. The government must commit to tackling the symptoms and the causes of our increased rainfall by dealing with global warming emissions.
‘The chancellor should have announced a nationwide programme to upgrade Britain’s draughty homes, making them fit for the 21st century and creating jobs in every constituency. Instead we get a 1980s-style road building programme and subsidies/tax breaks for fossil fuel giants that will entrench the high carbon economy we should be moving away from.’
Dr Doug Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace UK
David Powell, Friends of the Earth’s senior economics campaigner, said ‘the chancellor has served up plenty of environmental gloom – with precious little silver lining.’
In reaction to the Autumn Statement, the charity announced that once again, the chancellor ‘has put polluters ahead of people.’
‘Mr Osborne yet again put powerful interests and big polluters ahead of our health, homes and wellbeing.
‘The chancellor has cut tax for dirty gas and oil, despite overwhelming scientific evidence of the need to end our fossil fuel dependency.
‘George Osborne’s response to Britain’s filthy air and heat-leaking homes that kill tens of thousands of vulnerable people every year is to build new roads and ignore calls for a comprehensive energy efficiency programme.
‘We have the ingenuity and resources to overcome the challenges we face and create an economy that benefits us all – but once again the people pulling the levers of power have let us down.’
David Powell, Friends of the Earth’s senior economics campaigner
Friends of the Earth says the Autumn Statement fails people and the planet for a number of reasons:
More information on the Autumn Statement and its contents can be found on the government’s website.
Sorry we don't have any suggested related content at the moment. Please check back later.
Subscribe to our newsletter
Weekly ethical news, offers, comps and a free digital mag (quarterly) – what’s not to love?
