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Issue - meetings

Government consultation on aviation tax reform

 

 

Meeting: 01/07/2021 - Cabinet (Item 10)

10 Government Consultation on Aviation Tax Reform pdf icon PDF 194 KB

To consider Government consultation on aviation tax reform

Additional documents:

Decision:

RESOLVED: to ratify the final response of the Stansted Airport Advisory Panel (STAAP) which met to consider the Aviation Tax Reform consultation on 19th May.

Minutes:

Councillor Evans presented the report on the Government consultation on aviation tax reform. He said the report was seeking ratification of the Stansted Airport Advisory Panel’s (STAAP) response to the Government consultation. He asked Cabinet to support the response.

 

RESOLVED to ratify the final response of the Stansted Airport Advisory Panel (STAAP) which met to consider the Aviation Tax Reform consultation on 19th May.

 

Meeting: 19/05/2021 - Stansted Airport Advisory Panel (Item 5)

5 Government Consultation on Aviation Tax Reform pdf icon PDF 194 KB

To consider Government consultation on aviation tax reform

Additional documents:

Minutes:

SP5

government consultation on aviation tax reform

 

The Senior Planning Policy Officer said that the consultation ran until 15th June 2021 and set out the Government’s approach to reducing the domestic rate of Air Passenger Duty (APD) to support Union and domestic connectivity and to increase the number of international duty bands so that the further an individual flew the higher the duty (the ‘polluter pays’ principle).  

 

The Senior Planning Policy Officer said that Appendix A set out the planned responses and he suggested the following:-

  • The reduction in domestic duty was not supported as it was not compatible with the aim to achieve net zero carbon status by 2030.
  • The response would support the principle of international bands and that option B worked best. 
  • The Frequent Flyer Levy (FFL) would be difficult to administer.

 

CouncillorIsham said he thought the FFL was an obvious way to increase duty on those who flew on a regular basis both for business and pleasure.  He said the administration of the scheme should not be too difficult to work out.  He said the current APD should be kept and added to in order to reduce frequent flying.

 

Councillor Dean said he agreed with the “polluter pays” principle and said a way to administer the FFL needed to be found.

 

Councillor Fairhurst said it would not be too complicated to find a way to manage the FFL and impose this on each flight an individual took using FFL to fund carbon reduction.

 

There was some discussion as to where the FFL pot of money should go and the general consensus was that it should go into general taxation to provide for other services and should not be there to encourage more polluting activity.

 

Councillor Caton thought the APD cut was a populist idea without any thought behind it and he also agreed with the “polluter pays” concept.  He said FFL was complicated and had privacy issues.

 

Councillor Reeve was not in favour of reducing APD, but did agree with the FFL concept.  He thought the first flight for an individual should be exempt and then charges increased depending on frequency after that. 

 

AGREED: to endorse the final response to be submitted to Cabinet for ratification to include the additional suggestion of a Frequent Flyers Levy within the response.