"We are not impressed"

Not us talking, but the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, in a report published today which roasts the government's record on a host of green issues. What they are so particularly unimpressed by in the above quote is the Treasury's half-baked explanation for their refusal to even work out how much the VAT tax rebate to aviation is actually worth each year.

Since its inception in 1997, with a mandate to keep a watch on the Treasury's progress towards keeping its promises on climate change and the environment, the EAC has been an annoying voice of reason within the House of Commons. Why can't they ever say anything nice? Oh wait, no I get it. Today's report has plenty of interesting criticisms to make of the Treasury's many diverse and abject failings with regards to climate change, but the Committee seems especially underwhelmed by this government's approach to the problem posed by aviation emissions. As they've been saying for years now, "Aviation is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK, its contribution to global warming is enhanced through releasing emissions at altitude, its growth is being fuelled by largely inessential journeys (especially short-haul journeys, where there are rail alternatives), and it is very lightly taxed (notably aviation fuel is untaxed internationally)."

The EAC's yearly recommendations are generally far too sensible to be taken seriously by anyone actually making policy, and as such they are usually roundly ignored. Today's report notes a rare win for them; success in persuading the Treasury to change the way Air Passenger Duty is applied, so as to tax flights rather than passengers, and to link the rate of taxation more closely to the distance of the journey. It's a short celebration though as they also point out that even including the recent rise in APD, it is still in real terms around 29% less than it was when Labour came into power, and revenue from APD has been falling at the same time as emissions from aviation have been going up...

The most revealing example of the government's attitude towards aviation, though, is their response to one of the EAC's earlier recommendations; to calculate how much money the British taxpayer forks out in VAT repayments to the aviation industry each year. This might seem like a rather reasonable and inoffensive request; after all, the aviation industry is subject to a 'zero-rating' with regards to VAT, unlike, for instance, pointless luxury goods such as bicycles, tampons and condoms. It would be nice to at least know how much it is costing us to repay the aviation industry the VAT on a wide range of their purchases.

So what was the Treasury's considered response to this request?: "We can't be bothered." I paraphrase, of course, but the gist of their response is this; because there would be so many really exhausting, boring practical challenges to actually trying to change the rate of VAT applied to aviation, it is therefore not worth bothering to even work out what the present system is costing us. This excretious argument is what so unimpressed the report's authors. It doesn't impress us either. Why on Earth can't Treasury officials just look in the books, do a couple of sums, and then tell the British public the tune to which we're filling the troughs of the aviation sector through VAT rebates each year? Surely they can't have something to hide?