Chancellor Alistair Darling has called for a UK-wide carrier bag charge in supermarkets.

In his first Budget Speech, Chancellor Alistair Darling today announced the UK Government will introduce legislation forcing supermarkets to charge for plastic carrier bags, if they do not take action themselves.

The new law will come into force in 2009 and could lead to a 90 percent reduction totalling 12 billion fewer plastic bags in circulation, Darling said.

“We need to do more to reduce the amount of carbon generated at home and at work,” he announced, adding that the money raised through charging for bags should go to environmental charities.

Retailers Marks & Spencer and Woolworths have already unveiled plans to make their customers pay for food bags.

M&S will roll-out a 5p charge per bag in all of its UK stores from the beginning of May 2008 and plans to donate profits generated to its environmental charity Groundwork.

Woolworths will also start charging 1p for single-use plastic bags from May and, if the trial is a success, said the initiative will be rolled out nationally within months.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has, however, branded Darling’s emphasis on carrier bags as a cause of climate change “outrageous”, accusing him of “trying to disguise the need to plug holes in his finances.”

Stephen Robertson, BRC Director General, 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 revealed that the main corporation tax rate will be cut from 30% to 28% in April, whilst 90% of businesses will continue to pay Capital Gains Tax of 10% –one of the lowest rates in the world.

By Natasha Piscitelli