Author Archives: Liz Hutchins

Liz Hutchins

Independent View: Danny Alexander’s green line

By Liz Hutchins | Fri 17th August 2012 - 1:49 pm

Danny Alexander is right to recognise Liberal Democrats will not be forgiven for delivering George Osborne’s attacks on the environment. Alexander’s ‘Generating Growth and Jobs in a Time of Austerity’ conference motion is pretty bold and we hope it is an opening salvo in a serious re-adjustment in the Liberal Democrats’ environment agenda in Government.

Alexander’s intervention is needed. Osborne has seized the environment as an issue and is using it to play to the Tory right in an attempt to save his political skin. This has involved much tilting at wind turbines and charming his friends and relatives by proposing …

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Posted in The Independent View | Tagged , , and | 12 Comments
Liz Hutchins

The Independent View: FIT for purpose

By Liz Hutchins | Tue 20th December 2011 - 3:53 pm

Every day the economic storm clouds get darker and darker as the recession deepens and unemployment soars. Over the past two years one new sector has offered a glimmer of hope: the UK solar industry. But Government cuts to solar payments this month are set to devastate a home-grown economic success story and pull the plug on tens of thousands of clean energy jobs.

Today Friends of the Earth and two solar firms are taking the Government to court. Ministers are slashing cash-back for generating green energy through solar panels, ahead of plan.

Pulling the funding rug from under …

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Posted in The Independent View | Tagged | 10 Comments
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Recent Comments

  • David Wright
    Not all British islands are alike legally. A resident of the Channel Islands, or the Isle of Man, is not automatically a British Citizen, nor can they vote in ...
  • Iain Donaldson
    Alex, wasn’t that how the conversion of council estates into housing companies started, with the mistaken idea that debt could be assigned outwith government ...
  • Alex B
    Not tax raising but debt raising capability. Anyway my experience is that local councils have no experience of large scale building projects. So whichever way y...
  • Iain Donaldson
    Jana, if Burnham's speech marks the beginning of a wider national debate, that can only be a good thing. England's over-centralisation is a genuine problem. How...
  • Paul Holmes
    Alex, you are not seriously suggesting that unelected and entirely unaccountable Housing Associations should be given tax raising powers? Also, can you point...