HC Deb 18 April 1990 vol 170 cc855-6W
Mr. Cousins

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the impact of the fiscal measures he has taken in his Budget on the quality of the United Kingdom environment.

Mr. McCartney

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the impact of the fiscal measures he has taken in his Budget on the quality of the United Kingdom environment.

Mr. Lilley

The Budget proposed a widening of the price differential between unleaded and 4-star leaded petrol from 14.2 to 15.6 a gallon (3.1 to 3.4p a litre). This will continue the process, begun in the 1987 Budget, of encouraging car drivers to switch to the use of unleaded petrol. The burden of taxation on motorists was also shifted from vehicle excise duty, which was frozen, to petrol usage; the duty was more than revalorised to compensate. The Budget also proposed that tax relief be made available for expenditure by waste disposal operators on preparing sites for waste disposal and making sites good after disposal operations have ceased. These measures will bring worthwhile environmental benefits.