Green Living: Tax and spend

By Giles Broadbent on January 14, 2010 11:53 AM |

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By Andrew Williams

It will not have escaped your attention that the VAT rate has risen back to its old level of 17.5 per cent. This is a mild irritation for us at Seventeen, as we have to remember to change our invoice templates and I shudder to think how stores with hundreds of lines of stock manage to keep track.

Tax will be a battlefield issue at the next election as we face a choice between cuts, cuts or more cuts. Some analysts believe that the VAT rate may even rise, possibly to 20 per cent.

One issue will be green taxes. These are designed to punish those who pollute or waste resources, and reward those who are prudent with materials, energy and land. The problem is that it can sometimes be difficult to decide if these are measures aimed at environmental protection or an exercise in revenue creation.

A recent study by Scientific American described how all of the world's energy needs could be met by wind, wave and solar power by 2030. This would of course require a huge investment of capital, but imagine the benefits - plentiful, clean power on tap for the entire world in our lifetimes.

Few political parties would have the political stomach for such an ambitious project unless we were at war, yet many climatologists believe that is precisely what we now face - a battle for our survival.

Perhaps the key issue for the next government should be whether to throw another £89billion renewing our Trident nuclear deterrent. Since it seems that most of the people who want to attack Britain don't give two hoots whether we've got nukes or not, perhaps it's time to finally get rid of it.

- Do you or your company have an environmentally friendly product or service you'd like featured in this column? Let us know by contacting Seventeen, a sustainable alternative for your event management needs, at andrew@seventeenevents.co.uk.