UK: Green campaigners hit out at Sunak’s tax cut on domestic flights

Environmental campaigners have criticised the UK government for delivering a “shockingly bad” Budget that failed to set out how it would fund its net zero carbon target and lacked green spending commitments. Green groups reacted with disbelief on Wednesday that Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, announced plans to cut taxes for domestic flights just days before the UK is due to host global leaders at the COP26 UN climate summit in Glasgow. The government will halve domestic air passenger duty to GBP6.50 per flight from April 2023, which it said would leave around 9m passengers paying less to fly between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Sunak said the measure would fix an inconsistency that has seen people pay more tax to fly domestically than abroad, boost struggling regional airports and “bring people together across the United Kingdom”. But Paul Tuohy, CE of green lobby group Campaign for Better Transport, hit out at the move. “In the looming shadow of the climate emergency and with COP26 just days away, the decision to cut air passenger duty on domestic flights is utterly wrong-headed.” Sam Alvis, head of green renewal at Green Alliance said it was an “incredibly bizarre approach from the chancellor to sideline net zero, which is one of the government’s major priorities, ahead of COP26.” Andy Bagnall, director-general of the Rail Delivery Group, which includes state-owned Network Rail along with the operators that were effectively nationalised during the coronavirus pandemic, was also critical of the move. “If the government is serious about the environment, it makes little sense to cut air passenger duty on routes where a journey in Britain can already be made by train in under five hours,” he said, pointing out that the cut in APD would lead to an extra 1,000 flights a year as 220,000 people shifted from rail to air.<br/>