Darling said that the government would scrap taxes on electric company cars for the next five years and announced 100% first year capital allowances for businesses using electric vans.

Company cars account for around 1.1million of the vehicles on the UK roads, only around fifty of those are electric and the new proposals will encourage businesses to look at the options available.

Companies currently pay National Insurance contributions and employees pay income tax based on the cost of the car and the CO2 emissions, electric cars attract a 9% tax while fossil fuelled vehicles range from 10 to 35%.

Darling also announced extra funding for low carbon industries, pledging an investment of £160 million across a range of low carbon public and private projects through existing schemes — along with 90 million pounds earmarked for green European infrastructure schemes.

He also said the government would double its commitment to carbon capture and storage, by supporting four new projects with technology that captures CO2 and stores it underground.

Darling also outlined plans to introduce a scheme to replace 125,000 old and inefficient central heating boilers in homes across the UK with a cash back scheme similar in principle to the car scrappage scheme.

PREL have pledged their support to the commitment, that if the Conservative Party form a government next year, there will be no decrease in landfill tax in real terms for the next ten years.

PREL, whose zero-landfill Energy Park for Peterborough gained planning approval from the Government last month, welcomed the Shadow Chancellor’s announcement as an incentive to local authorities to increase recycling rates and work with green industrial partners to deliver sustainable solutions

Managing Director of PREL, Chris Williams said:

“We very much welcome any initiative that puts a low carbon future at the heart of our economic recovery. The commitment by George Osborne MP to maintain the level of taxation on landfill on or above the 2013 rate will ensure – if implemented – that local authorities are incentivised to look for alternative methods to deal with municipal waste. As the PREL Energy Park for Peterborough demonstrates, with the right combination of technologies, we now have the capability in the UK to put an end to landfill once and for all.”

For more information visit the PREL website.

PREL say its ‘energy park’ in Peterborough could revolutionise waste management by recycling mixed waste to produce re-usable glass, plastics and metals, while generating clean energy by burning recovered organic matter and eliminating waste.

Energy and Climate Change Minister David Kidney said;

“This plant will provide reliable, low carbon energy for years to come. The UK needs to generate 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, and energy from biomass could contribute as much as a third of that.”

PREL is hoping that its 80 megawatt power plant and recycling project could be replicated across the country. It is estimated that the project will keep 600,ooo tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, while producing enough energy to power 60,000 homes.

PERL Managing Director Chris Williams said;

“Waste can be a valuable resource and using it in a sustainable way will play an essential role in making our future more green,”