Call to soften heavy burden of green taxes |

Call to soften heavy burden of green taxes

Last updated at 9:28 PM on 7th August 2011

Green taxes are making it difficult for many small businesses to invest in reducing their energy use.
Instead of ‘simply taxing firms’, business owners want the State to offer incentives to firms to become more ‘green’.
A quarter of firms taking part in the Forum of Private Business’s environmental panel believed that ‘being green’ was impossible in the current economic climate.

Tough taxes: Green taxes are making it difficult for many small businesses to invest in reducing their energy use

Three-quarters of respondents also feel that environmental legislation is focused on the needs of larger businesses and is too complex.

The Forum is urging the Government to ensure that environmental policies are simple and concise.

It is also calling for greater support for firms that want to make largescale property improvements, for example through financial incentives such as tax relief and Government-backed low cost loans, as well as the removal of red tape.

Figures show that the Government raised more than £40 billion last year through environmental taxation.

The manufacturers’ association, EEF, warned last week that the burden of green taxes was at a tipping point, with jobs and investment being hit.

From 2012 all firms with an annual electricity bill of about £500,000 or more must record greenhouse gas emissions and buy Government permits allowing them to carry on.

The scheme is designed to reduce carbon emissions, with firms paying less the greener they are.