Did Rishi Sunak ‘scrap’ net zero measures – or were they not even policies?

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2 years ago

September 22, 2023

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This week, Rishi Sunak made a surprise speech announcing delays to a number of key Conservative pledges aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

But alongside a five-year delay to the ban on selling new petrol and diesel cars, and various changes to promises on oil and gas boilers, the prime minister also claimed he was scrapping a number of more “heavy-handed measures” that would hit people in their pockets.

These elements have caused some controversy, with former ministers accusing him of “pretending to halt frightening proposals that simply do not exist”, and calling them “straw men” that were never even government policy.

Politics Hub: PM ‘undeterred’ by net zero backlash

However, Mr Sunak has insisted they are measures that have been “raised by very credible people about ways to meet our net zero obligations”.

So what has Mr Sunak claimed to have scrapped? And were they ever on the Tory agenda in the first place?

Compulsory carpooling

First up, the prime minister said: “The proposal for government to interfere in how many passengers you can have in your car – I’ve scrapped it.”

The government has sung the praises of carpooling – often referred to as lift sharing – before.

In 2022, the Department for Transport issued guidance to councils about the benefits of introducing schemes locally, saying increasing the number of people in each vehicle by 1% annually between 2022 and 2030 would remove 1.25 million cars from the road and result in an annual reduction in CO2 of 1.25 metric tons.

Encouraging carpooling was also among the recommendations made by the independent Climate Change Committee, set up as part of the Climate Change Act to advise the UK on tackling the issue.

Its members said two-thirds of car trips are undertaken with just the driver, and introducing carpool lanes could help improve the figures, while “societal pressure to increase car occupancy could play a role as the public becomes increasingly environmentally aware”.

But making carpooling compulsory was never government policy.

Recycling bins

The next policy Mr Sunak claimed to have scrapped was “the proposal that we should force you to have seven different bins in your home” for recycling.

Legislation passed in 2021 means local authorities have to arrange collections for paper, plastic, metal and glass, as well as food, garden and general household waste – but there never seems to have been a rule introduced for them to be taken in separate bins.

The government had been looking into ways to make recycling more consistent across the country, and reforms had been expected in March – though reports suggest they were delayed so as not to impact local elections.

That plan is still expected to come from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, but after the prime minister’s speech it confirmed “it was never the case that seven bins would be needed by households”.

Meat taxes

Mr Sunak also said in his speech he had now scrapped “the proposal to make you change your diet – and harm British farmers – by taxing meat”.

The idea of a meat tax has been touted by a number of climate experts as an effective way to reduce emissions due to the amount of greenhouse gases created in the farming process.

In the Climate Change Committee’s report to parliament last year, they brought up the prospect of “diet change”, saying: “Cutting back [on meat] can contribute to healthier diets, reduce direct emissions from food production in the agriculture sector and also free up land that can be used for carbon sequestration.”

But the report also said there were “no policies in place to capitalise on [the] momentum” of people already reducing the amount of meat they eat.

The committee said “steps must be taken to encourage a shift to healthier diets with reduced consumption of meat and dairy”, pointing to measures adopted by local councils going plant-based at events they host, and a “unique” commitment by the Welsh government to “promote a dietary shift to a healthier and suitable diet, recognising the benefits for climate, health and wider sustainability”.

However, these are recommendations, and the government did not have a policy or plan to bring in meat taxes.

Flying taxes

In his final list of policies he had scrapped, Mr Sunak pointed to the proposal to “create new taxes to discourage flying or going on holiday”.

Aviation has long been a target of those wanting to cut emissions and numerous policy papers have pointed to additional taxes as a way to put people off air travel.

But it has never been looked at favourably by the Conservatives, with Mr Sunak himself cutting existing air passenger duty on domestic flights back in 2021 when he was chancellor – just days before the COP26 summit in Glasgow.

Back to the Climate Change Committee report again, and it repeatedly recommends “fiscal policy” such as “taxation, quotas or a frequent flyer levy” to “increase the price of flying to reflect the high emissions cost of air travel and incentivise low-emission alternatives, e.g. rail travel”.

It also calls for improvements to broadband to encourage people to use videoconferencing instead of taking flights to meetings, as well as “fair funding mechanisms” to make greener alternatives more affordable, and says such policies could be reviewed if new technology comes on the scene to make flying more environmentally friendly.

But while the committee hammers home its point that taxes “should send clearer signals to consumers on the high emissions cost of flying”, this has not been adopted by the government as official policy.

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What is a wealth tax, how would it work in the UK and where else has one?

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2 hours ago

July 9, 2025

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What is a wealth tax, how would it work in the UK and where else has one?

The idea of a wealth tax has raised its head – yet again – as the government attempts to balance its books.

Downing Street refused to rule out a wealth tax after former Labour leader Lord Kinnock told Sky News he thinks the government should introduce one.

Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said: “The prime minister has repeatedly said those with the broadest shoulders should carry the largest burden.”

While there has never been a wealth tax in the UK, the notion was raised under Rishi Sunak after the COVID years – and rejected – and both Harold Wilson’s and James Callaghan’s Labour governments in the 1970s seriously considered implementing one.

Sky News looks at what a wealth tax is, how it could work in the UK, and which countries already have one.

What is a wealth tax?

A wealth tax is aimed at reducing economic inequality to redistribute wealth and to raise revenue.

It is a direct levy on all, or most of, an individual’s, household’s or business’s total net wealth, rather than their income.

The tax typically includes the total market value of assets, including savings, investments, property and other forms of wealth – minus a person’s debts.

Unlike capital gains tax, which is paid when an asset is sold at a profit, a wealth tax is normally an annual charge based on the value of assets owned, even if they are not sold.

A one-off wealth tax, often used after major crises, could also be an option to raise a substantial amount of revenue in one go.

How could it work in the UK?

Advocates of a UK wealth tax, including Lord Kinnock, have proposed an annual 2% tax on wealth above £10m.

Wealth tax campaign group Tax Justice UK has calculated this would affect about 20,000 people – fewer than 0.04% of the population – and raise £24bn a year.

Because of how few people would pay it, Tax Justice says that would make it easy for HMRC to collect the tax.

The group proposes people self-declare asset values, backed up by a compliance team at HMRC who could have a register of assets.

Which countries have or have had a wealth tax?

In 1990, 12 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries had a net wealth tax, but just four have one now: Colombia, Norway, Spain and Switzerland.

France and Italy levy wealth taxes on selected assets.

Colombia

Since 2023, residents in the South American country are subject to tax on their worldwide wealth, but can exclude the value of their household up to 509m pesos (£92,500).

The tax is progressive, ranging from a 0.5% rate to 1.5% for the most wealthy until next year, then 1% for the wealthiest from 2027.

Norway

There is a 0.525% municipal wealth tax for individuals with net wealth exceeding 1.7m kroner (about £125,000) or 3.52m kroner (£256,000) for spouses.

Norway also has a state wealth tax of 0.475% based on assets exceeding a net capital tax basis of 1.7m kroner (£125,000) or 3.52m kroner (£256,000) for spouses, and 0.575% for net wealth in excess of 20.7m kroner (£1.5m).

The maximum combined wealth tax rate is 1.1%.

The Norwegian Labour coalition government also increased dividend tax to 20% in 2023, and with the wealth tax, it prompted about 80 affluent business owners, with an estimated net worth of £40bn, to leave Norway.

Spain

Residents in Spain have to pay a progressive wealth tax on worldwide assets, with a €700,000 (£600,000) tax free allowance per person in most areas and homes up to €300,000 (£250,000) tax exempt.

The progressive rate goes from 0.2% for taxable income for assets of €167,129 (£144,000) up to 3.5% for taxable income of €10.6m (£9.146m) and above.

It has been reported that more than 12,000 multimillionaires have left Spain since the government introduced the higher levy at the end of 2022.

Switzerland

All of the country’s cantons (districts) have a net wealth tax based on a person’s taxable net worth – different to total net worth.

It takes into account the balance of an individual’s worldwide gross assets, including bank account balances, bonds, shares, life insurances, cars, boats, properties, paintings, jewellery – minus debts.

Switzerland also works on a progressive rate, ranging from 0.3% to 0.5%, with a relatively low starting point at which people are taxed on their wealth, such as 50,000 CHF (£46,200) in several cantons.

Politics

Jingye and Whitehall officials hold talks over British Steel future

Published

5 hours ago

July 9, 2025

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Jingye and Whitehall officials hold talks over British Steel future

The Chinese owner of British Steel has held fresh talks with government officials in a bid to break the impasse over ministers’ determination not to compensate it for seizing control of the company.

Sky News has learnt that executives from Jingye Group met senior civil servants from the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) late last week to discuss ways to resolve the standoff.

Whitehall sources said the talks had been cordial, but that no meaningful progress had been made towards a resolution.

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Jingye wants the government to agree to pay it hundreds of millions of pounds for taking control of British Steel in April – a move triggered by the Chinese group’s preparations for the permanent closure of its blast furnaces in Scunthorpe.

Such a move would have cost thousands of jobs and ended Britain’s centuries-old ability to produce virgin steel.

Jingye had been in talks for months to seek £1bn in state aid to facilitate the Scunthorpe plant’s transition to greener steelmaking, but was offered just half that sum by ministers.

British Steel has not yet been formally nationalised, although that remains a probable outcome.

Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, has previously dismissed the idea of compensating Jingye, saying British Steel’s equity was essentially worthless.

Last month, he met his Chinese counterpart, where the issue of British Steel was discussed between the two governments in person for the first time.

Jingye has hired the leading City law firm Linklaters to explore the recovery of hundreds of millions of pounds it invested in the Scunthorpe-based company before the government seized control of it.

News of last week’s meeting comes as British steelmakers face an anxious wait to learn whether their exports to the US face swingeing tariffs as part of US President Donald Trump’s trade war.

Sky News’s economics and data editor, Ed Conway, revealed this week that the UK would miss a White House-imposed deadline to agree a trade deal on steel and aluminium this week.

Jingye declined to comment, while a spokesman for the Department for Business and Trade said: “We acted quickly to ensure the continued operations of the blast furnaces but recognise that securing British Steel’s long-term future requires private sector investment.

“We have not nationalised British Steel and are working closely with Jingye on options for the future, and we will continue work on determining the best long-term sustainable future for the site.”