Finance Bill

I agree with quite a lot of what the hon. Member for Wycombe (Mr. Goodman) said in response to amendment No. 13, which I shall oppose. I do not wish the increase in air passenger duty to be delayed, and I do not think that it is right to put in statute a demand for an ““assessment””. We need aviation taxes to raise revenue and to cover the externalities of air travel. We also need additional, not replacement, taxes to change behaviour. If, as I hope, behaviour changes as a result of these taxes, we will have had a positive result in terms of that desired outcome and the Government will not have to worry about revenues from green taxes, in this case on aviation, dropping. The central paradox, if not contradiction, in the Liberal Democrats’ position on green taxes is that they do not really want behaviour to change, because that would mean that tax revenue would drop and they would have an even bigger hole in their budget. Nevertheless, I have a lot of sympathy with what the hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) said about aircraft movements. In 1994, when the tax was first introduced, it had a small aircraft-related element, in that aircraft weighing less than 10 tonnes were exempt. That was to do with flights of small planes from Scottish islands, Cornwall and so on. The Liberal Democrats have a point in saying that when we try to change behaviour we should tax the right thing, which is aircraft movement rather than people. As the hon. Member for Twickenham said—this had not occurred to me and I thank him for raising it—his proposals on taxing aircraft movement rather than passengers would have a differential effect domestically as against internationally, because, as it would be calculated per takeoff, proportionately speaking it would hit harder domestically. He is right to say that the substitution effect is possible domestically but not for long-distance international flights, although it is possible in the case of other countries in western Europe, where one can take the train, as I do. I urge my hon. Friend the Financial Secretary to take on board the comments that have been made about the additional green taxes on aviation that I would like in order to change behaviour, particularly domestic behaviour. Let me give an example. We could all cite the difficulties that we have in encouraging the green agenda given the cost of travel in the United Kingdom. One of my nieces, who lives in Sheffield, has just flown to Thailand. When I asked her whether she was going from Gatwick or Heathrow, she said that she was travelling from Sheffield to Manchester, flying from Manchester to London, and then flying on to Thailand on a different flight. That is not a great green message for the next generation, but she is a young woman of modest means, to say the least, and that was the cheaper option. Additional green taxes might change things in some way in the case of domestic flights.