Campaigners call for extra hour of daylight

Climate change campaigners added their voices to calls for the UK to change from the current arrangement of being on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in the winter and GMT+1 in the summer to GMT+1 in the winter and GMT+2 in spring and summer.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) said that while the current arrangement was not being changed, it continued to listen to views and evidence put to it.

Meanwhile Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw said the change would be "good for business, good for tourism, good for the environment, improve safety and increase people's sense of well-being".

Climate change campaigners 10:10 said that if the change suggested in its Lighter Later campaign was implemented the entire country would, overnight, be one step closer to a 10% reduction in its carbon emissions, "as well as happier, healthier and better off".

Group founder Franny Armstrong, who is also director of the climate change blockbuster The Age of Stupid, said: "Hands up who doesn't want our country to be safer, lighter, more prosperous and with less pollution? And who doesn't want to save money on their electricity bills without lifting a finger?"

10:10 claimed that the change would save almost half a million tonnes of CO2 each year.

In addition, it could save more than 100 fatalities on the nation's roads each year; consumers and businesses would use less energy, thus saving money; and 60,000 to 80,000 jobs would be created through increased leisure and tourism.