THE influential Commons Treasury Committee dealt a blow to Gordon Brown’s hopes of improving his green credentials yesterday when it lambasted his decision to freeze air passenger duty (APD).

In its report on the Budget, the cross-party committee said that the Government’s justification for freezing the tax on airline use for the fifth year in a row was “incoherent and unconvincing”.

The report noted that Britain is lagging behind other European countries on its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and called for the tax to be increased.

It said: “In the context of the wider problem of climate change, we consider it entirely inappropriate that, between 2000 and 2004, tax receipts from APD should have fallen by 8 per cent, whilst passenger numbers have risen by 35 per cent.”

A Treasury spokesman said that the Government was pushing to include aircraft emissions in the Europe-wide Emissions Trading Scheme, which it believed was the most effective way to cut pollution.

The report also attacked the Chancellor for his move in the Budget to alter the inheritance tax treatment of trusts, which lawyers believe will force millions of homeowners to rewrite their wills.

The committee said: “We are concerned that a legitimate measure designed to reduce tax avoidance may penalise trusts established to protect family members.”

It challenged the Government to back up its claim that only a “minority of a minority” of 100,000 trusts would be affected by the new rules.

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