On the off-chance that Voice readers missed The Sun’s interview with Lib Dem energy and climate change secretary Ed Davey on Friday, here’s an excerpt:
In a grim admission to millions of hard-pressed Brits, Energy Secretary Ed Davey said ministers cannot reverse rising global fuel prices. But he insisted that they can help to ease the blow for millions of households hit by the global trend. In a bid to placate furious consumers, he today unveils a £125million move to help the first 125,000 homeowners who take up the Green Deal home improvements scheme. Each will get up to £1,000 as an incentive to put in insulation or upgrade boilers. Insisting he wanted to level with Sun readers, Lib Dem Mr Davey conceded: “My expectation is global gas prices are likely to stay high or go higher, whatever we do. Any politician who tells you they can determine the international gas price is lying. But we can help people save energy so they don’t have to buy so much gas.”
You can read Ed’s interview with The Sun here.
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5 Comments
A good start but more ambition, please. We should aim to replace every inefficient heating system and properly insulate every home in the country. We’d care a lot less about gas prices then.
Dear Ed
I rent my house. The rent is more expensive than it would be if I could get a mortgage.
Last year I had NO HEATING AT ALL because I couldn’t afford it, and at the same time eat and keep a roof over my head.
PS My tiny flat has double glazing and roof insulation.
PPS Is British Gas still british? Gets confusing!
I have no insulation at all, a 300 year old building damp and cold, worth a lot but not a lot of good points, when living in it.
It is social housing, and I can understand the point of the Government with some of the social housing stock. It could fund better homes for more people. We do need to have more equality in this sector. I too live in the cold and it is miserable.
Ed: Why the first 125000 applicants ? I thought the point of the exercise was to help everyone to help meet our emissions targets !
A more helpful move might well be to remove VAT ( @ 5%) from domestic energy bills. Charging this indicates that, yet again, government talks with a split tongue. Everytime there is a price rise, so there is a VAT rise. Get real Ed !
1 Any VAT collected from domestic energy should be re-spent as incentives or Green Deal support.
2 Police helicopters with the heat seeking camera, used for spotting cannabis growing lofts, should also be used to identify houses losing too much heat. Then the locations could be identified and the insulation teams sent round to do the work. There should be no ‘liberal’ use of energy.
3 Pub patio heaters should be banned
4 Shops should not be allowed to prop their doors open in cold weather
.. any other policy ideas?