For all the talk from Tony Blair that “right throughout government, we put the question of sustainability at the heart of what we try to do” most ministries are dedicating none of their budget to local generation at their sites. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has dedicated £1.5million of this year’s budget to it, and the Department of Transport (DoT) has allocated cash to water recycling, but that’s it.

Stephen Tindale, the executive director of Greenpeace, compared this performance to the Surrey town of Woking which is working to cut carbon emissions by 77 per cent.

He added: “This is just another example of the yawning gap between New Labour’s rhetoric and reality. One of the first things Alistair Darling [the Transport Secretary] could do is to bash heads together around the cabinet table so ministers start setting an example. If Woking can do this, why can’t Whitehall?”

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