UK Finance Minister's budget: key energy-related announcements

Important energy and environmental announcements made by the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown in his Budget statement included:

• An increase in the climate change levy, in line with inflation, from 1 April 2007.
• An extra 250,000 installations of subsidised insulation in British homes over the next two years
• Funding for local authority-led publicity and incentive schemes for energy efficiency
• Trialling the use of 'smart' energy meters
• A new voluntary initiative with major retailers to reduce the energy use of consumer electronics.
• A new National Institute of Energy Technologies, in partnership with the private sector.
• An additional £50 million to develop microgeneration technologies and the launch of a consultation document on the barriers to large-scale commercial deployment in the UK of carbon capture and storage.
• Reforms to the tax on road vehicle (vehicle excise duty - VED) to sharpen environmental incentives.

Full details can be found here

and the full Budget speech here