Tory environmental group reacts to Budget

Conservative Environment Network’s director Sam Hall said: “This high-tax Budget will scare the entrepreneurs and crowd out the private investment we need to decarbonise.

"The private sector is willing and able to finance the UK’s clean energy transition. Hiking business taxes to fund GB Energy’s enormous £8.3 billion price tag encapsulates the government’s wasteful, big state approach to net zero.

“This Budget shows the government has the wrong priorities on the environment. There were positive announcements to protect electric car tax breaks, incentivise home insulation, and support rail electrification schemes. But ideological vanity projects were backed over low business taxes, long-term protection of the nature-friendly farming budget, acceleration of new nuclear, and support for rural bus services.

"The next Conservative leader now has an opportunity to offer a positive, market-led approach to the environment. They should seize this opening with both hands by pledging to sweep away state-imposed barriers to green private enterprise.”

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