Material gain in Britain is making people less happy and only radical action to protect society and the environment can prevent economic growth from further damaging our wellbeing, according to a major Conservative policy report endorsed by David Cameron yesterday.

The Tory leader said that much of the document would be included in the party’s next manifesto, signalling that he will campaign to introduce many of the green taxes that it proposes. He sought to draw the sting from increasing the cost of cars, flights, loft extensions and televisions by pledging that all additional revenue raised would be set aside in a “Family Fund”.

After weeks of extensive pre-briefing, many of the main proposals from the final submission of the Quality of Life group’s report were familiar.

Market-based solutions are suggested to make people take trains, buy more fuel-efficient cars, houses and electrical appliances, recycle more and waste less. Short-haul domestic flights, airports, motorways, 4x4 vehicles, second homes and plasma TVs are all targeted.

But if much of the content was not a surprise, the Blueprint for a Green Economy did raise eyebrows in its willingness to criticise voters’ lifestyles.

Its introduction states that, beyond a certain point, "ever-increasing material gain can become not a gift, but a burden. As people it makes us less happy, as the environment upon which all of us, and our economy, depend is increasingly degraded by it”.

It calls for a new national purpose to balance economic and environmental growth with social regeneration.

The group, chaired by John Gummer, a former Tory Environment Secretary, and the wealthy environmental campaigner Zac Goldsmith, says that many people are trapped on a “hedonistic treadmill” where “efforts to bolster wellbeing through acquisition often end in disappointment”.

They propose the development of a new form of GDP that takes into account social and environmental indicators to help policy-makers to find measures that make people happier as well as wealthier.

On transport the main proposals include new taxes on domestic flights, varying rates of Vehicle Excise Duty to punish those most polluting in each class of car and limits on expanding airports and motorways. Private nonresidential parking should be taxed to discourage car use, and out-of-town supermarkets should be required to charge customers to park.

In a sizeable section on making buildings greener, the group suggests cutting stamp duty and council tax for more energy-efficient homes and offices. By contrast those refusing to lag lofts and fit double-glazing should be prevented from extending their homes.

So-called smart meters for water, electricity and gas should be fitted to houses, and householders should be given council tax rebates if they meet recycling targets. Those wishing to fit solar panels and wind turbines could sell excess energy to the national grid at up to four times the market rate to encourage the supply of renewable power, it suggests.

Businesses should be required to meet the same recycling standards as private homes and face sharp hikes in landfill tax. Power stations that waste heat should be heavily taxed. New fishing limits – with marine parks to protect stocks – should be set up with trawlermen and farmers, protected by new legally enforceable codes on supermarkets. Schools and hospitals should be made to source their food locally, states the report, which calls for clearer labels on products’ origin.

Mr Cameron welcomed what he described as “the most thoughtful and comprehensive and fullest report that any party in Britain has produced on the environment”. He added: “I think it is a very good report and there is much of it that we will include in our manifesto.

“I think we have a responsibility in this generation to make sure that we provide a greener and cleaner country and world and planet for our children. That means we cannot go on as we are in terms of the way we run the Government, in terms of the way we live our lives, and we have to make real changes.”

Nervous of a backlash, the Tory leader announced a new Family Fund into which all additional revenue raised would be kept to pay for proposal such as tax breaks for married couples.

It was not enough, though, to prevent fierce criticism from business leaders, motoring and aviation lobbies and some Conservative politicians.

Lord Bach, chairman of the Airport Operators Association, said: “The proposals to stop increasing air travel will, if implemented, cost 26,000 jobs over the next eight years that would otherwise be created at our airports.”

Edmund King, executive director of the RAC Foundation, said: “If the measures in this plan were implemented, it would lead to a gridlocked and stalled economy with more congestion and pollution rather than a ‘green economy’.”

Roger Helmer, a Tory MEP, described the proposals as half-baked. He said: “The whole approach is antiConservative. Conservatives don’t think like that. If the answer is new taxes, we are very much asking the wrong questions.”

David Wilshire, Tory MP for Spelthorne, said that the proposals would cost jobs in his constituency which borders Heathrow. He said: “Zac doesn’t understand aviation. It’s a global business. If we fiddle about on an entirely unilateral basis we will damage the British economy.”

The Green Party said that the proposals would hit the poor. “Using eco-taxes to reduce income tax adds up to shifting the burden of tax from rich to poor – a grossly regressive move,” a spokesman said.

However, the report drew praise from some environmental and conservation groups.Ben Stafford, of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: “We welcome this report’s strong statement that a future Conservative Government will have to be resolute in its determination to infuse all of its policies with clear environmental purpose. The crucial test now will be how many of the recommendations David Cameron takes on board.”

It’s not easy being green

— The 547-page report deals with a broad range of policy areas, and it was perhaps inevitable that some would be seen as a little too radical

— The day before its publication one Tory staffer sighed that the press would have “a field day” with some of the wilder suggestions of the Quality of Life group’s Blueprint for a Green Economy

— It did not disappoint. On page 317, the group suggests removing white lines and other signage from rural roads to encourage drivers to take more care

— Signs that warn of crossing toads and horses should be banned to prevent the “suburbanisation” of the countryside

— The authors call for tens of thousands of street lights, to be switched off, unlikely to be welcomed by drivers or pedestrians

— They also venture into the fraught area of second homes. Parish councils could impose residency tests: “By referendum they could decide that houses in their area could only be sold to people who intended to live in them for at least 200 days a year”

— Other proposals include imposing VAT on domestic flights; lowering stamp duty on green homes; and phasing out energy-intensive plasma TVs and standby-buttons

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