The Green Party has announced an ambitious plan to
create jobs through retrofitting the UK’s poorly insulated housing stock.
As energy industry experts warn of another huge rise
in bills in the Autumn the issue of how we pay to heat and light our homes is
set to be a major issue at the local elections being held in May.
As the
UK faces the most sustained fall in the standard of living since the fifties
the party said in a statement to the press there has ‘never been a more important
moment to elect Greens who will work hard to help their community deal with the
cost-of-living crisis while tackling the climate emergency and reducing
inequality [2]’.
The
Green Party is calling for £25billion a year to be spent funding local councils
to retrofit homes to make them more energy efficient saying this will ‘address
the energy security and the cost-of-living crises, reduce carbon emissions, and
create jobs all at the same time’.
Households have already been hit by a rise of £693 on
April 1st, those with prepayment meters will see their bills rise by
even more, an estimated £708 a year. This coincides with rises in council tax
and water rates
Cornwall Insight published figures over the weekend
predicting that the energy bill for a typical household could rise to £2600 in
October.
Concern has been expressed by debt charities and
energy companies that government support for people struggling to pay their
bills does not go far enough. Children and older people, it is feared, will
suffer health problems this winter through living in poorly heated homes [1].
The £25billion a year investment plan in retrofitting homes
would, the Green Party say run for a decade, £2billion a year would be directed
towards developing skills within the workforce to help with the transition to a
net-zero economy [3].
Power would be devolved to local authorities to allow
them to direct how funding for skills training schemes would be spent to better
meet the specific needs in their area. Many of the new jobs would be created in
the renewable energy sector, investment in which would be paid for by a 40% tax
on polluting energy companies that would raising £5billion.
The party also wants to see it made easier for
companies and individuals to recycle 100% of what they use and a move away from
ownership to usership instead. This would see an increased use of carpools and
community libraries for things like tools and equipment.
Scientists preparing a major report for the UN on climate
change have advised that the world needs to move away from using fossil fuels
over the next eight years to have a realistic chance of controlling the greenhouse
gasses warming the planet [4].
Green Party spokesperson on Employment and Social
Security Catherine Rowett said, “the time is ripe for a blossoming of the renewable energy sector,
thriving on the creation of real jobs and clean industries fit for the 21st
century”.
Adding that to pay for their
ambitious plans the Greens would “tax pollution and wealth. That includes
increasing the tax already charged on North Sea oil and gas to 40%, which would
raise £5 billion and make polluters pay for their activities.”
Green
Party councillors across the country were, she said, already “working to ensure that people will benefit from green jobs
by creating training programmes, and by investing in renewable energy and
energy efficiency. We’ll need a workforce ready to retrofit homes on a mass
scale. Electing more Green councillors will speed up this revolution”.
[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60959357
[2]https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gRCJsr0yq1TrP9LlcQ_JWB17iUk_P6KiJlM2Tko4Yus/edit
[3]https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VU-AdxPNqItgIquQwavDE0DE8x_-aaw3LvCxjEMavuk/edit
[4] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60959306
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