Brits face a whopping £1.6 billion price hike on everyday goods thanks to Ed Miliband’s new ‘Net Zero’ tax, according to the British Retail Consortium. The policy, the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme, kicks in this week. It forces food and drink producers to cover the cost of packaging disposal – a bill of around £2 billion. Unsurprisingly, retail bosses say 80% of that will be passed on to consumers…
Andrew Opie of the BRC warned: “This is a multibillion-pound levy being paid by consumers during a cost-of-living crisis. They’ll ask: what are we getting for higher prices?”, while Sean Murphy of glass firm Encirc said: “This tax will hit everyone – in the supermarkets, pubs and glass factories that create thousands of jobs.” Net zero-sum game…
Andy Haldane, Burnham’s recent adviser on the economy who has not taken up a No10 job, told Andrew Marr on LBC:
“The market now suspects that this is a traditional tax-and-spend socialist government with better TikTok videos…
imposing windfall taxes on oil & gas or on banks or upping capital gains tax would […] repeat the mistake that Rachel made […] The Achilles heel, the fiscal Achilles heel of this government thus far has been its unwillingness and/or inability to cut public spending.”