NGOs call on UK government to ensure SAF revenue mechanism is industry funded

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by Fayaz Hussain
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NGOs have called upon the UK government to ensure the plan for revenue certainty mechanism laid out in the policy paper ‘Delivery plan for designing and implementing a revenue certainty mechanism for SAF’ is not paid for tax payers.

In a letter addressed to the Secretary and Minister of State, around ten NGOs said that “your department recently published its delivery plan for designing and implementing a revenue certainty mechanism for SAF and stated that the intention was that the mechanism be industry-funded. It is essential that the Government follows through with this intention. Crucially, this should mean that the Treasury, and by extension the taxpayer, is not involved at all.”

The letter says that according to the annual National Travel Survey, in 15 out of the last 17 years, the majority of British people did not fly. Of those that did, most flew abroad only once each year.

“It would therefore be grossly unfair for the taxpayer to cover the funding costs of the future revenue certainty scheme, as the majority of the population travels by plane rarely, or never. This is especially true in a cost-of-living crisis. The costs of the scheme could impose an unacceptable burden on hard-pressed British families, something that the Prime Minister recently specifically ruled out. We welcome the stated intention that this is industry-funded but are aware that this could be interpreted in different ways,” it added further.

The NGOs have asked the UK government to ensure:

  • “Industry-funded” should mean that the costs of any revenue support mechanism should be paid for solely by the aviation sector.
  • No existing or future taxes on the sector that currently/would flow to the Treasury, such as Air Passenger Duty or emissions trading scheme revenues, should be earmarked to fund the scheme.
  • At no point should there be any potential for Treasury money to be used to cover any scheme costs; the scheme should be administered by a body that is not the Treasury, similar to how the Low Carbon Contracts Company operates regarding renewable energy generation.

New Economics Foundation, AEF, Opportunity Green, Greenpeace, Women’s Budget Group, Possible, Transport & Environment, Green Alliance, Tax Justice UK and Campaign for Better Transport backed the letter.

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