Tories step up pressure on Darling to deliver "green Budget"

The Conservatives today called on the government to introduce a green " Budget for the future" next week, outlining a number of policies they say would help the country simultaneously emerge from the recession and move to a low-carbon economy.

The wide-ranging proposals include the award of a £6,500 energy efficient entitlement for every home in Britain, with the cost being repaid through savings on fuel bills, and the construction of three carbon capture and storage plants funded by the auction of permits in the EU emissions trading scheme.

They also call for investment in a high-speed rail network, a smart grid " electricity internet" network, an offshore DC cable network, and recharging infrastructure for electric cars, as well as a new regime of loan guarantees for firms deploying clean technologies and the creation of an "environmental trading market".

The proposals drew a withering response from climate change and energy secretary Ed Miliband, who branded them "unrealistic" and "uncosted".

But shadow chancellor George Osborne said the list of 10 policies would result in £30bn of private sector investment in green technologies. "What's needed in next week's Budget are policies that will not only help today, but also help tomorrow," he said. "Instead of racking up yet more debt, these policies would boost the economy by providing companies and individuals with incentives to build the future."

Osborne also criticised the government's announcement this week to offer incentives to purchasers of electric cars, arguing that they do not include plans for a smart grid that should be the basis of a widespread charging infrastructure.

He pointed to the verdict of John Loughead, executive director of the UK Energy Research Centre, who said the scheme had a "distinct lack of detail".

Other measures outlined in the Conservative document include an accelerated rollout of smart meters, which would measure energy use in homes and businesses more accurately, and calls for the planned introduction of feed-in tariffs to be brought forward.

The government has said smart meters will be rolled out by 2020, while feed-in tariffs for electricity-generated micro-renewable technologies are to be introduced in 2010 with similar tariffs for renewable heat systems to follow a year later.

Ed Miliband hit back at the Tories' plans, telling the Guardian that many of the proposed measures were unrealistic.

He argued that a £6,500 entitlement for every household would cost at least £150bn, adding that the Conservatives had not explained how such incentives would be paid for.

"Their ideas are pale shadows of our commitments: to smart meters, to feed-in tariffs and to support for low-carbon industries," he added. "The Tories want to cut back on public expenditure – yet in these proposals are uncosted spending plans."

In related news, a report this week from the Centre for Cities think-tank called on the government to abandon its road-pricing policy and invest the £1bn transport innovation fund primarily earmarked for congestion charge schemes in bus, tram and cycling projects instead.

Currently, local authorities applying for money from the fund must have a road-pricing scheme included in its proposals. But Dermot Finch, director of the Centre for Cities, said many cities were unconvinced by congestion charging and that the money would be better spent on emission-reduction projects that are more likely to secure local support. "If there are no takers by the end of the year, the government should call it a day on its current road user-charging push," he said.