According to the UK Independence Party website UKIP will try to achieve the following if they gain power at the 2010 general election:
13.1 More people and greater affluence mean increased pressures on all material resources worldwide. This must be a concern for the UK, though our technology has a good record of finding substitutes for materials that become too expensive. A key raw material for the synthesis of many modern products is oil; reducing its use for energy generation would allow British reserves to be conserved for longer and allow their use primarily as a raw material for the chemical industry.
13.2 Many other material resources will continue to be required into the future. Minerals are largely imported, and future security of supply and costs are a potential major issue as global demand rises. However, the increasing value of many such materials gives an extra incentive for more effective salvage and recycling worldwide, for example recovery of the range of metals present in discarded electronics components20. Quarrying remains an important activity in the UK, supplying such industries as cement production and road construction, and we need to ensure that these activities can continue to supply our reasonable needs without disproportionate environmental harm. UKIP’s policy is to favour extraction where ensuing damage to geographical features can be made good after production ceases, such as through appropriate infill and landscaping.
13.3 All major UK water policy areas are now governed by EU legislation (in particular the EU Water Framework Directive, which came into effect in 2000)21 and yet more regulation is planned. This would add an extra £1 billion per year on to water bills, and the UK may be forced to spend further billions changing its water treatment systems. These matters should be decided for ourselves in the UK in relation to our national priorities and the willingness of British consumers to meet the cost.
UKIP would ensure that national water policy is suited to UK needs, and review the roles of the various government regulators in this area which at present are almost entirely defined by EU legislation. We would review the operation of the existing water and sewerage businesses in the UK, and make appropriate changes to increase security of supply, environmental enhancement, and value for money. We favour users paying the economic cost of water supply and paying directly for the cost of sewage treatment and disposal. With regard to water discharges, we support the general principle that ‘the polluter pays’.
13.4 In most years we experience severe water shortages, particularly but not exclusively in the South and East of the UK. Demand for water continues to rise, and while short-term measures such as reducing leakage and more storage are important, we would examine the long-term feasibility of a national water grid, which may include greater use of canals to transfer water, with possible new links created. The funding for this would partly be assisted by the British Independence Fund, and construction would provide vacancies for UK workfare placements.
I would be interested to hear both positive and negative views on UK Independence Party’s Non-Energy Resources policies in the comments below?