Whitehall Watch

Peter Madden weighs up the prospects of a green Brown cabinet team.

Gordon Brown should soon have the keys to Number Ten. When he assembles his cabinet, how green will it be – and what should be its priorities?

Alastair Darling, the most probable choice as chancellor, is unlikely to champion sustainable development. In his last two portfolios he was grey rather than green. So it’s questionable whether we’ll see the radical environmental tax shifts we need in order to send the right price signals and move the economy.

David Miliband will be rewarded with a top job. Let’s hope he carries some of his new-found ‘one planet’ fervour into it – perhaps as foreign secretary, where the priority will be to drive the international climate change negotiations forward. There should be a good opportunity here, as everyone starts anticipating a much more sympathetic US regime post-Bush.

“Benn would be a good choice as the Brown government’s new lead figure for sustainability.”

Hilary Benn would be a good and likely choice as the UK’s new lead politician for sustainability. Defra would be a more appetising proposition for him if it becomes  the Department of Environment and Energy, taking over energy policy from DTI (even if another merger raises unhappy memories of the internal organisational distractions of the last one). Benn has a sound green track record, would command respect from the NGOs, and has international experience. The big challenge, especially if this job has an expanded remit on climate change, will be to make low-carbon living a reality, by pushing through policies such as personal carbon allowances.

Benn might be replaced at DFID by Ed Miliband, younger brother of David. Here one of the big jobs will be to start tackling the developmental impact of climate change, which will prove disastrous and undo decades of development work if poorer countries are not helped to adapt.

The Transport job will test the mettle of any politician. Douglas Alexander hasn’t yet come up with coherent answers on air traffic growth, and got badly stuck in a political jam over road congestion. It will take imagination and political bravery to reduce the use and impact of the car. Ruth Kelly is a likely choice for this post. Will she show these qualities – or will transport policy remain gridlocked?

The Government has ducked local government financial reform yet again, by kicking the Lyons Review into the long grass. Will the Department for Communities and Local Government ever get serious about devolving power? This would be a good, challenging brief for Charles Clarke – were he to be allowed back – or perhaps a promotion for Dawn Primarolo. The department will have a big delivery job to do, too. Not only are tens of thousands of new homes to be built, at a zero-carbon standard by 2016, but Brown has promised to tackle existing housing too, so “every home for which it is practically possible becomes low carbon by 2016.”

DTI (if it still exists) might go to Stephen Timms or Ed Balls. The international trade aspects of sustainability can only grow – with issues ranging from product standards to technology access – and these debates will influence whether the big developing countries join any future climate change framework. Innovation remains important too, particularly in environmental products and services.

And what of the man in Number Ten? Gordon Brown gave some hints of his priorities at a recent speech hosted by Green Alliance. Half the speech was devoted to international and development issues, where his obvious passion lies. The domestic portion focused on housing and empowering consumers. He came over as someone who’d be solid on green issues, rather than showing ambitious leadership.

Green Alliance has put together some tests for environmental leadership: the political parties are asked to reduce CO2 emissions by at least 3% a year, protect the natural environment, incentivise green living, defend the planning system, and increase the proportion of green taxes. I suspect that Gordon Brown will make modest progress on most of these – with the exception of planning, where he seems determined to push the narrow interest of productivity at the expense of wider concerns about community and place.

Over the last year Brown has teased us on sustainability issues. Expectations raised by the Stern report were disappointed by his pre-budget report, then raised again by his big keynote speech – only to be followed by a budget which failed to deliver meaningful policy change. Let’s hope he has some major sustainability initiatives up his sleeve for his first 100 days.

Peter Madden is chief executive of Forum for the Future.

3 May 2007

Peter Madden