Letter: Manifesto for recovery

Sir: We need green leaves, not merely green shoots, for a sustainable recovery. Your 10-point plan, particularly in its emphasis on infrastructure for private transport, fails this test. The more fundamental change needed in policy should include:

1. a shift over five years from taxation of income to taxation on pollution and energy;

2. widening of the economic indicators guiding policy to include social and ecological indicators;

3. imaginative new approaches to unemployment, such as workshare and basic income schemes. Public investment for environmental goods, such as the four Rs (re-use, recycling, repair and reconditioning). Housing and conservation projects also offer low-inflationary and low-import paths towards job creation.

Yours sincerely,

ED MAYO

Director

The New Economics Foundation

London, E1

22 October