Labour conference


Green moves on buses and fuel

Labour yesterday attempted to reclaim the green agenda by seeking to reverse the decline in bus use and investing £10m to provide enough renewable energy to meet the domestic demands of Norwich, Oxford, Exeter and Newcastle combined.

The transport secretary, Douglas Alexander, promised councils fresh powers over bus services, partly undoing Margaret Thatcher's deregulation of the industry, while David Miliband vowed to unlock hundreds of millions of pounds of private funding by partnering energy schemes which will provide enough electricity to serve 250,000 homes.

The environment secretary also called for "a stronger European Union on the environment, not a weaker one".

But ministers shied away from the radical proposals Ken Livingstone offered - adding a £10-£15 carbon tax to every plane ticket and rolling out water metering.

The mayor of London predicted green issues would dominate the next election, perhaps to the alarm of his party, which is regarded by voters as less environmentally sound than the Liberal Democrats and Tories.

"Aviation has got to be brought right to the centre of this debate," Mr Livingstone told delegates.

But the subject was barely mentioned in ministerial speeches yesterday.

A Labour insider said: "The trouble with aviation is that the technology is not there yet. We are not going to stop people from going on holiday."

Tony Juniper, executive director of Friends of the Earth, warned: "Many of the government initiatives coming forward are broadly positive, but they are utterly insufficient to match the scale of the problem. Aviation is one of the most glaring omissions in policy terms."

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