Gone are the days when Treasury sweeteners, announced at the Budget by the Chancellor, after weeks in purdah, will set the pulses racing in some quarters of the public and in the offices of the environmentalists around the UK. What is increasingly well known is that the Treasury is part of the problem, and the budget is rarely a big part of the solution. This year’s budget could signal a real change in this sorry state of affairs.

The UK should follow Germany in introducing a ‘feed in tariff’ for renewable generating technologies. As Ofgem, the UK energy market regulator, notes, the German model, which provides long-term, guaranteed prices for suppliers, has resulted in more renewable energy being deployed at lower cost than in the UK – and not just for micro-generation, but for utility scale investment like offshore wind power.