By Juliet Davenport

Despite the coalition labelling itself the greenest government ever, environmental measures were conspicuous by their absence from yesterday’s budget.

This budget was strictly business – with the focus clearly on spending cuts and tax rises. Although we did get promises of greener things to come in the Autumn, it would have been nice to hear more on these initiatives yesterday.

We can look forward to seeing more detailed proposals to reform the climate change levy in order to support the carbon price – something Good Energy welcomes as it should encourage greater uptake of renewables, helping the UK reach its targets.

We also want to hear more detail on how the Green Investment Bank will work – and the Green Deal to help people invest in better energy efficiency.

Environmenatlists will also have been disappointed not to get an announcement on taxing air travel, switching from a per passenger to a per plane duty – although the Chancellor did say he’d ‘explore’ such changes to help reduce carbon emissions.

Here at Good Energy, we’re disappointed but not all that surprised that the government didn’t use this opportunity to do more on the green agenda, especially given its headline commitment to fighting climate change outlined in the coalition agreement. There’s plenty of work still to be done – even with spending restrictions in place.

Areas we are keen to see develop are that the coalition stick to its pre-election pledge to reform the Feed-in Tariff in line with our campaign for a Fair Deal for Energy Entrepreneurs and support for the Renewable Heat Incentive.