New Labour have billed the scheme as something to kick-start the motor industry; receive £2000 for a car that is more than ten years old, as long as a brand new car to replace the scrapped car. It is hoped that the scheme will increase manufacture for the motor industry within the UK, and provide citizens with a chance to indulge in newer, more reliable cars.

The scheme is modelled on similar programmes that have taken off successfully in other European nations, including Germany, France and Italy. In the UK, early trends have shown that the public are willing to take part in the scheme, and initial statistics indicate that car manufacture in the UK is increasing, and the cost to the consumer is decreasing; people are scrapping old cars for smaller, cost-effective new models.

Neglecting the Environmental Opportunity

Whilst the scheme could benefit the consumer in cost-effectiveness, and the motor industry in increased manufacturing opportunities, environmentalists are arguing that the government, in ignoring the chance to include carbon emissions caps on the cars available in the scheme, have missed a perfect opportunity to attack the climate change issue within the UK, in one of the problem’s key areas.

Interestingly, the models on which the scheme is based – the programme in Italy being a particularly good example – have combined economic incentives with environmental benefits, seizing, in the eyes of the environmental lobby, a perfect opportunity to reduce the percentage of carbon emissions as a result of motor vehicles, in their respective countries.

Though the scheme has indeed shown a general trend in people taking up smaller cars, a number of environmentalists are regretting that the scheme was not designed to include such a feature; certainly the effect of the programme is that smaller, fuel efficient cars will populate British roads, but nothing from the government has necessitated such a change.

A Lack of Green Car Policy – Emblematic?

For some, the lack of environmental design in the car scrappage scheme is a worrying indication of New Labour’s effective environmental policy; whilst the government pays lip–service to a need for environmental reform, critics argue that such a missed opportunity – be it through complacency or policy – shows that New Labour are far less committed to an actual environmental reform than they claim.

Of course New Labour supporters can point to a number of steps. The creation of the Department for Energy and Climate change in October of 2008 is perhaps emblematic in itself of a government awareness of the importance of climate change as a primary issue, and Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s commitment to the electric car should allay some of the fears posited by environmentalists in relation to the government stance on the motor industry.

In counter, though, it could be argued that environmental reform in the motor industry is moving to slowly, in an arena where carbon emissions are both highly noted at relatively easy to curb.

Essentially, it seems, the government have missed something of an environmental trick.