Call for big hike in motoring taxes

British drivers will be hit by a massive increase in motoring taxes if the recommendations of an influential environmental think-tank are accepted by the Government.

The Green Fiscal Commission, which is looking into ways to help the UK meet agreed targets for CO2 reductions, is recommending that taxes on 'high carbon' activities should be dramatically increased, while at the same time other taxation is lowered.

Report wants petrol to cost 2.20 a litre
Controversial options suggested by the Commission include a 300 tax on new cars, rising to 3300 by 2020, and the tripling fuel duty over the same timespan.

At current prices, that would push the cost of a litre of petrol or diesel to more than 2.20.

The Commission was established in 2007 to consider ways to reduce CO2 emissions. Senior members of all three political parties serve on it, as does Lord Turner, the Government's 'green tsar.'

'It is really a question of moving a mindset,' said the report's author, Paul Elkins, a professor at University College London.

'We've had it as a given that energy is cheap, so we have been wasteful. This has to change and the only way to do that is to make the polluters pay.'