News: Tory think tank calls for tax hike on domestic flights

Flights > News > # 1459 (13/09/2007)

Taxes on UK short-haul flights are needed to combat climate change, a Conservative policy review group has said.
The Quality of Life Group said it was "illogical" cars and trains were taxed more than flights, adding the UK should be a "world leader on green growth".
It wants to suspend airport expansion and increase investment in railways.
Tory leader David Cameron will have the final say on which bits of the "blueprint for a green revolution" becomes policy.
The recommendations come from a group headed by former Environment Secretary John Gummer and the environmentalist Zac Goldsmith, and form the last of a series of "policy reviews" by the Conservatives.
The group calls for VAT to be introduced on domestic flights to end the "unfair and illogical bias that taxes cars and trains more than flights".
Under its plans, £29 would be added to a return flight from London to Manchester, for example.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Gummer said: "There are 30 or more flights a day from London to Manchester and other cities like that.
"That's a terribly bad way of pouring emissions into the atmosphere. What we need is a better train service."
The group also suggests putting airport expansion on hold and scrapping plans for a third runway at Heathrow.
However, the chief executive of budget airline Easyjet, Andy Harrison, said domestic air travel was "already very highly taxed".
"If you widen the debate out to the regions - to Northern Ireland, to Scotland, to the north-east - rail is simply a slow, expensive, and often non-existent alternative."