ConDem coalition's green aspirations dashed against monetarist budget

Green Peace protesters (Guardian)

The UK's coalition government, amusingly nicknamed "ConDem" by opponents who see the UK being condemned to years of misery, included a raft of "green" measures in its budget proposals unveiled yesterday. However, although they speak the green words, they don't deliver. They focus on a traditional economic model of monetarism and "growth is king", when we need to adopt green economic strategies if we are to avert looming environmental disaster.

Caroline Lucas' Guardian blog summarises ways in which the Budget makes green sounds - and then fails to deliver. She says: "The chancellor has missed a huge opportunity to turn environmental necessity to our economic and social advantage and end our dependency on fossil fuels."

Government budget proposals that sound green but do the opposite:
• Green Economy - Set up a Green Bank - but stop it from borrowing
• Sustainable Transport - Scrap the planned tax on air travel, and reduce tax on petrol for cars
• Carbon floor prices: at £30 a tonne, the new levy on carbon will hardly promote low-carbon energy, but  will give nuclear power companies a windfall subsidy
• Zero-carbon homes - change rules so "zero-carbon" homes would in fact create carbon emissions.

Caroline Lucas says: "This budget contains nothing to shift us away from our dependency on oil and gas, nothing to take advantage of the potential of new technologies such as wind, wave and tide, and precious little to encourage investment in renewable industries.

"This is not only bad economics – it is also a huge missed opportunity. Between the extremes of Tory kill-to-be-kind austerity and a return to Labour's debt-fuelled spend-a-thon lies a more subtle alternative: avoiding savage cuts in public spending that could trigger a new recession, but also concentrating that spending where it has the maximum economic, social and environmental benefit.

She describes how this would work. The "green deal" says money invested energy saving (home insulation and domestic solar panels for example) could sustain far more jobs than other forms of government spending, and also reduce fuel poverty, improve health and tackle climate change. "Today, the arguments in favour are stronger, particularly with hikes in regressive taxes such as VAT and cuts in benefits and services leaving the poorest even more vulnerable," she said.

Link to Caroline Lucas Blog

Green alternative budget proposes cutting jobs of top council executives

The Green Party proposes an alternative budget "to reverse cuts, save jobs and introduce sustainable ways of funding the council". One of the funding proposals is to cut top jobs at top level of the council.

Yesterday, Green councillors were blocked from a radical proposal that "the council's four strategic directors, who earn approximately £125,000 each, be removed in favour of increased funding for the Connexions youth careers and advice service which has been subject to major cuts".

Green finance spokesperson Cllr Jason Kitcat said: "However skilled these strategic directors are, they're an expensive layer of management that the council simply cannot afford in the face of the unprecedented cuts the Conservative-led government is imposing on us. We are deeply disappointed we have been blocked by the Tory administration and senior officers from even discussing this proposal. This unwelcome move by the Tories and their appointed, unaccountable bureaucrats makes a mockery of local democracy."

"Our alternative budget would make council spending fairer, reduce the impact of the cuts and improve our position for future years. The Tories nationally are cutting our funding to the bone, while locally they are spending everything they've got in a desperate attempt to win over the electorate this May," said Jason.

"We are doing everything we legally can to minimise harm, set the groundwork for positive future projects and protect public services while voicing our anger at this Conservative-Lib Dem government's callous cuts."

Key items in it include:
* £924,000 of recurring funding being put back into services for Children, Young People & Families including Educational Psychologists and the Connexions careers & advice service.
* £500,000 to kick-start investment in solar panels for council homes and offices, which would create free electricity for tenants and new revenue through the ‘Feed in Tariff' for renewable energy generation.
* £450,000 for a new reserve to deal with the risks of the major changes proposed to services for Adult Social Care and Children, Young People & Families.
* £40,000 to pilot a residential food waste collection scheme.
* £25,000 to fund extra noise patrol shifts in the city.
* £15,000 more in grants to voluntary organisations in the city.
* £26,000 saved from removing catering for meetings councillors attend and £18,000 saved by reforming the system of councillor allowances.

The full Green Alternative Budget can be viewed online at: http://bit.ly/greenbudget