Brown promises green route to recovery

This month’s Budget will track a “green” route to economic recovery, prime minister Gordon Brown has promised.

The 22 April Budget will be a “job creator, a quality of life improver, and an environment-enhancing measure”, Brown told the Independent. He added there would be scant room for further fiscal stimulus.

The newspaper said councils would be invited to submit bids to become Britain’s first “green cities”. Other planned measures include trials of electric cars, with a roadside network of power points to charge the vehicles.

Brown has previously said 400,000 new jobs could be created over the next eight years if the UK move to a low-carbon economy.

He has also pushed for an international “green new deal” to stimulate growth.