Budget 2021: Five priorities for a green and fair economic recovery

Through the APPG on Limits to Growth—in partnership with the APPG on the Green New Deal—MPs and Peers across the political spectrum have written to the Chancellor urging him to use the 2021 Spring Budget to build a green and fair economic recovery post Covid. As the last Budget before the UN climate summit (COP26), the Budget will be a litmus test of the UK’s climate leadership, says the letter, and must deliver action on climate and nature.
1st March 2021

This is the last budget before the UK hosts the COP26 climate summit in November. It will be a litmus test of the UK’s ability to show leadership and deliver action on climate and nature, and will be viewed by the world as such. The budget must set the UK firmly on the path to a green recovery. Do that well, and the Government can deliver on promises to level up the nation, while also reversing the pre-existing inequalities worsened by the pandemic.

The letter is offering five priorities for action. These are informed by a previous meeting of the APPG on the Green New Deal and the APPG on Limits to Growth, which explored with leading experts what the budget needs to include to deliver a green and fair recovery. Every decision that the Treasury makes should be through a climate, nature and equality lens, and this budget must be the start.

The letter has been signed by MPs and peers from across the political spectrum, and it calls on the Chancellor to use the Budget to

• Stimulate not consolidate, borrowing to invest in a sustainable economy
• Create more than a million green jobs with targeted investment in energy efficiency, home insulation and other decarbonisation measures
• Reform the tax system to create a green and fair economy, including reducing tax breaks for polluters and considering a windfall tax on companies which have benefited from the pandemic
• Change the Bank of England’s mandate so that its activities, and those of the banks it regulates, are fully aligned with the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement
• Pivot towards new measures of national progress, so that recovery is not judged in terms of GDP growth but on the health and wellbeing of people and the environment.

The letter was jointly developed by the APPG on the Green New Deal and the APPG on Limits to Growth and is available on the limits2growth.org.uk website.