The Conservative Government has announced it is to introduce a tax on the import and manufacture plastic packaging using less than 30% recycled plastics.

Chancellor Philip Hammond’s Budget announcement also outlined plans to spend £60 million on planting more trees across England, £10 million to deal with abandoned waste sites and £1.6 billion to develop new technologies such as nuclear fusion.

He said the nation has a responsibility to focus on improving recycling in cases where materials cannot be reused and pledged to reform the Packaging Producer Responsibility System.

However, he stressed he did not believe taxing all plastic cup usage would work in isolation.

The Chancellor also confirmed fuel duties will be frozen for the ninth year in a row, saving the average car driver more than £1,000.

Mr Hammond said: “We cannot secure our children’s future unless we ensure our planet’s future so at this budget, I take further action, with a package of measures set out in the red book to ensure that we leave our environment in a better state than we inherited it.”