Smash hit

Within the next decade most coal-fired power stations will become redundant, the North Sea oil and gas fields will be further depleted and Britain will be obliged to cut its carbon dioxide emissions. Unless new energy resources are found, the country will be reliant on Russian gas.

This has barely warranted a mention in the election campaign. Yet next month, after a recommendation from his energy policy advice board, Blair is expected to start a public debate about the need for nuclear power stations.

Last week a source close to the board said: “The nuclear option is the only realistic way ahead. But it’s now a question of convincing society that nuclear is in our best long-term interests.”

The experience of France, where the majority of electricity is produced safely by nuclear plants, will be loudly trumpeted. As well as public scepticism the government also faces two other problems: cost and waste disposal.

One Whitehall insider said: “The government will have to find a way of attracting private firms, particularly from abroad, to build and run new nuclear power plants. A massive type of public finance initiative with decent profit levels built in appears to be the most likely solution.”

A committee on radioactive waste management has been asked to recommend how and where to create Britain’s nuclear graveyard. Its report — timed for after the election — will almost certainly propose an underground storage site, possibly deep under Sellafield.

Council tax

Over the past few years central government has subsidised the council tax system by several billion pounds, which is set to stop.

Last month the government began a massive exercise to revalue every home in England for the first time since 1991. These values will form the basis of a new council tax system to be recommended by Sir Michael Lyons, an academic, by the end of this year. It will be introduced in 2007.

Anyone whose home has increased in value by more than the national and local average since 1991 is likely to jump up a council tax band.

An analysis of property prices by Experian, the information company, suggests that homeowners in Huby, near Leeds, parts of Wakefield, Mayfair in London, Milbourne near Newcastle upon Tyne and Burley in the New Forest should brace themselves for the biggest hikes.

Motoring and road charges

Cutting congestion by charging motorists for road use will form one of the central planks of Labour’s transport strategy in a third term. Last year a government-commissioned feasibility study into a national road pricing scheme concluded that congestion could be halved if drivers were made to pay up to £1.34 per mile on the busiest roads.

The minutes of a meeting held in March of the government’s energy advisory board record: “Policies over the period 2010-20 would need to be much ‘tougher’: eg national road pricing.”

Fuel duty could be scrapped or reduced under such a scheme, but motoring groups fear the total tax burden on drivers — who pay £42 billion a year to the exchequer — would still rise.

Satellite-based tracking technology for national road pricing will not be available until 2014, but Alistair Darling, the transport secretary, supports interim measures.

Towns and cities are being encouraged to copy London’s congestion zone. Motorway tolls are being drawn up. Next year trials will begin of a distance-based charging scheme for lorries. It is viewed as a test-bed for car drivers.

Drivers of “gas guzzlers” are also likely to be hit hard under a third Labour term. Measures could include tax breaks to drivers of “green” cars, such as petrol-electric hybrid vehicles, funded through new fees on big polluters.

Additional reporting: Dipesh Gadher and Jonathan Leake

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