WALTHAM Forest residents paid more than £200 each in “excessive” green taxes last year, according to a report published by campaign group The Taxpayers' Alliance (TPA).

TPA, which campaigns for lower taxes, has used estimates from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to calculate the financial cost to society of areas' carbon emissions.

It has then compared this figure to the amount it calculates has been levied in green taxes and regulations by local authority area.

The figures for Waltham Forest show that the cost of carbon for the borough is £8.4m, but the total cost of green taxes and charges has been more than £54.2m. This equates to £204 per head of Waltham Forest's population in 2008.

The figure is even higher in neighbouring Redbridge, at £252.19.

Matthew Sinclair, TaxPayers' Alliance research director, said: “Families up and down the country have been over-charged on everything from turning on the TV to flying abroad, all for the sake of ineffective green taxes and regulations.

“Rising electricity prices have hit the poor and elderly in particular, and their cost is expected to increase massively in the years to come, creating an affordability crisis as energy costs rise and ordinary people face intolerably large bills.

“ At the same time, green taxes and regulations push up energy and transport costs for businesses, which makes it harder for British factories to compete and means manufacturing jobs moving abroad. “ “Politicians need to re-think climate change policy to reduce the burden on consumers and taxpayers.

“People are not willing to accept an increasingly high price for draconian policies that aren’t delivering results.”

The TPA estimates that the Government's climate change policies make up a fifth of industrial bills.

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