As many had predicted, announcement of the swingeing spending cuts that await the public were tastefully postponed.

There were no new proposals on shifting to a genuinely more progressive tax regime. Instead, at a time when one in four adults of working age remain jobless, this budget represents another missed opportunity to put fairness, jobs, and the environment at the heart of the UK's recovery plan.

There were a few minor nuggets of hope in Darling's speech.

Turning post offices into a People's Bank that will offer financial services to society's poorest is something the Greens have long called for and will go some way to bringing social equity to the financial sector.

Making sure that a bank account is available to all is progressive and fulfils a basic human right, although it's important that the cost of providing such an account will not be passed on from the banks to the customer.

In addition the small clampdown on tax evasion, a freeze on inheritance tax and increased stamp duty on house sales over £1 million are all welcome measures.

The over-riding message that the budget brings though is that the measures the Labour government have proposed are small change compared to what's needed.

And nowhere was this failure of ambition more apparent than in the plans for a Green Investment Bank.

The GIB was the real headline grabber in today's budget 2010. A chance for the Chancellor to make serious headway in investing in Green industry, creating jobs whilst alleviating our dependence on foreign energy and lowering the carbon emissions that lead to dangerous global warming.

Yet it fell far short of being the Green New Deal the Green Party and others have suggested for years. A deal that seeks a massive £44bn investment, creating 1 million jobs in Green industries, lowering carbon emissions and going a long way to providing future energy security.

The GIB will be funded by a tiny fraction of this sum, just £2 billion.

Research by the Green New Deal group, of which I'm a member, has revealed the scale of benefits to be gained from green investment.

For example, a sample of £10 billion in "green quantitative easing" invested in the energy efficiency sector could:

* Create 60,000 jobs while also reducing emissions by a further 3.96MtCO2e each year;

* This could also create public savings of £4.5 billion over five years in reduced benefits and increased tax take alone;

A sample of £10 billion in ‘green quantitative easing' invested in onshore wind could:

* Increase wind's contribution to the UK's total electricity supply from its current 1.9 per cent to 10 per cent (39 TWhe) and;

* Create over 36,000 jobs in installation and direct and indirect manufacturing

* Create a further 4,800 jobs in the operations and maintenance of the installed capacity and other related employment over the entire 20 year lifetime of the installation (equivalent to 96,000 job-years)

* And, if this directly replaced energy from conventional sources, it could decarbonise the UK economy by 2.4 per cent - reducing emissions from the power sector by up to 16 Mt CO2e each year. This corresponds to a £19 billion reduction in environmental damage.