In Green Liberal Democrats we are adamant. Making energy saving the nation's first priority is the best way forward.
Compare the limited £3.9 billion announced over 3 years, to provide only 90,000 homes with a new type of hearing, with the £150 billion programme LibDem Leader, Ed Davey, proposes.
That will insulate the social housing stock and help homeowners. How? Industry will develop new materials and switch to new products with technology we know about and some new that we don't know about now, to all but completely free us from the need for heating new domestic and commercial buildings. Changing regulations is key. If everyone has to meet the new regulations the scale of the market for sustainable tech will bring down prices in a competitive market.
How will we pay for insulating homes?
Vulnerability to escalating gas cost now shows that it won't take many years to recoup the cost to retrofit an existing property. The right government programme LibDems propose will result in the same quality of replacement technologies that will be m used by a newly sustainable industry supplying to new homes.
The insulation of older homes will be much more complicated than for a new home and costly.
Simple starts include thermal blinds until the windows need replacing. Then make it triple glazing and keep the blinds! The walls are complicated. It's the challenge every householder must tackle over time.
Here in politics, government allows some big picture oddities. Consider this. At least two oil companies announced plans to buy back shares with spare profits. Their industry is subsidised. How's that wise? Sorry, that's a silly question with a government that talks about a new language in politics but spends more of its time covering up bad judgment and preference of donors. That could be explained by the £18 million in donations to the Conservative Party from developers.
That means archaic building regulations will persist, with 20% plus profit margins in a cartel that sees too few homes built to bring supply up to demand, rabbit hutches and a generation that can't really afford a home.
Then things get technical. Homes that don't include what's permitted in solar, haven't a hope of going above that level to tiles and 3 phase, to enable the whole roof of all new buildings to be covered in solar. The regulations stifle the ability for those buildings to be carbon neutral on day one. 3 phase is needed beyond the currently permitted solar panel limit.
A government that swaps Ministers and doesn't get to the bottom of the numbers is all unfortunate for future generations and that's who we must ask to vote for us to change all this.
Are you asking how it can it change, when lobby groups with money from the fossil fuel industry are heard and listened to, above the voice of the people, the science and reason? If we can get people to see that, their votes can help us to make the changes needed. Right now you can join the LibDems, help start and become active in a Green LibDem group in your region.
