Joint letter for publication on Wednesday 12th March 2008:

Dear Sir,

Today's Budget needs to tackle climate change and ensure a more equitable society. In order to help do so, Chancellor Alistair Darling must stand by his Government's pledge to increase fuel duty in line with inflation.

Fuel duty was frozen between 2003 and October 2007 [1], contributing to making the real cost of motoring decrease, whilst the cost of public transport across the UK has increased [2]. This has had disastrous consequences. In the same period traffic increased by over 12% [3] and road transport carbon emissions by almost 5% [4], with road transport now accounting for over a fifth of UK emissions. Even with the planned 2p increase, and the next planned one in April 2009, by 2009-10, fuel duty rates will still remain 11 per cent lower in real terms than they were in 1999 [5].

The Chancellor should resist the inevitable protests from the haulage industry and motoring groups, and must support a move to a more progressive transport policy. He could start by increasing spending on public transport, to ensure we have more sustainable travel choices and can begin the move to a low-carbon economy.

Yours faithfully,

Duncan McLaren, Chief Executive, Friends of the Earth Scotland

Donald MacPhee, Chairman, Railfuture Scotland

John McCormick, Chairman, Scottish Association for Public Transport

John Lauder, Director, Sustrans Scotland

Colin Howden, Director, TRANSform Scotland

Dan Barlow, Acting Director, WWF Scotland

References:

[1] Announced in Budget 2007, but increase postponed until Oct 2007.

[2] Parliamentary Written Answer, Jim Fitzpatrick MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport, 17 July 2007, Hansard Column 246W - see <http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmhansrd/cm070717/text/70717w0014.htm#column_246W>.

[3] Transport Statistics of Great Britain 2007, Section Seven: Roads and Traffic, Table 7.1 - <http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/tsgb/2007edition/sectionsevenroadsandtraffic.pdf>. Billion vehicle-kilometres in 1997 = 450.3, in 2006 = 506.4.

[4] Transport Statistics of Great Britain 2007, Section Three: Energy and Environment, Table 3.8 (b) - <http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/tsgb/2007edition/>. Road transport by end user, million tonnes of carbon dioxide: 1997 = 136, in 2005 = 142.4.

[5] Budget 2007, para 7.36 - <http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/F/D/bud07_chapter7_273.pdf>.