In his first Budget speech, Chancellor Alistair Darling has said that laws will be introduced by next year to charge shoppers for using plastic bags, unless the supermarkets take action to do this.

The announcement comes after a number of retailers, including Marks & Spencer and Woolworths, have announced that shoppers will have to pay to use plastic bags later this year.

The British Retail Consortium attacked Darling’s view that carrier bags are a cause of climate change, branding it “outrageous”.

British Retail Consortium director-general Stephen Robertson said: “We’ll need to look beyond the headlines to the inevitable unannounced detail before we can fully assess this Budget, but it’s clear the Chancellor has huge holes in his accounts and is trying to hide an old-fashioned tax grab behind a bags-and-alcohol smokescreen.”

Darling also unveiled a 10 per cent cut in corporation tax, from 38 per cent to 28 per cent, which will come into operation by April.

Topics