A scrappage scheme that will pay people to replace old boilers with new ones has been announced in Chancellor Alistair Darling's pre-Budget report.

"Each inefficient boiler adds over £200 to household bills and one tonne of carbon to the atmosphere," he said.

From April, some £200m would be added to help with energy efficiency to cut carbon emissions from homes, he said.

Mr Darling also announced plans to create "high-skilled, high-paid jobs" in the "low-carbon sector".
 
"Tackling climate change will bring new opportunities for new low-carbon industries," Mr Darling said, insisting that investment to create jobs in this area would be "crucial to our future prosperity".

Energy efficient homes

Investment in a low-emissions future would thus be split between new technology on the one hand, improvements to existing homes on the other, Mr Darling said.

"As well as investing in clean and low-carbon technologies, we must become more energy efficient, to cut emissions as well as household bills," Mr Darling said.

"A quarter of all the country's emissions come from households."

The boiler scrappage scheme will "help up to 125,000 homes replace the most inefficient boilers with new models", Mr Darling said.

Early adopters of green technology in the home would also be rewarded.

"From April, people with a home wind turbine or solar panels who plug their excess power into the national grid will receive on average £900 a year," Mr Darling said. "I intend to make this tax free."

Electric motoring is also set to receive a boost.

"To help boost the number of electric cars on our streets, I have decided to exempt them from company car tax for five years," he said.

"And I can also announce a 100% first year capital allowance for electric vans."

Discounts for the poor

Income from solar panel generated power will be tax exempt
 
The latest measures would further extend the Warm Front scheme, which has already helped 235,000 people insulate their houses and heat them more efficiently, he said.

Energy efficiency in the home should also be aided by the roll-out of smart meters, which will be completed by 2020, he added.

And the £200m redirected towards energy efficiency projects would be topped up with discounts on energy bills to one million low-income households, raising the total to £300m, Mr Darling said.

Low-carbon infrastructure

At least £160m of public and private investment would be invested in low carbon projects through the Innovation Investment Fund and the Carbon Trust's Venture Capital scheme, Mr Darling said.

In addition, the government would invest £90m in the European Investment Bank's new 2020 fund, which will provide finance to the tune of 6.5bn euros ($9.6bn; £5.9bn) in infrastructure projects that contribute to emission reductions.

And more would be done to reduce the impact of coal power plants and other major carbon dioxide emitters.

"We will double our commitment and finance four Carbon Capture and Storage demonstration projects, to make us world-leaders in this vital area," Mr Darling said.

Article Source : BBC News