Christopher Hammond, Membership Director at UK100, responds to the details of the ‘Energy Price Guarantee’ and other measures intended to tackle the energy crisis, as revealed in Chanceller Kwasi Kwarteng’s ‘mini budget’ on Friday 23rd September.
Christopher said: “Britain is paying the price of successive governments ‘kicking the can down the road’ and not making our homes fit for the future. The cheapest energy is the energy we don’t use, but this has been overlooked time and again. Today’s Growth Plan contains some welcome measures for Net Zero, but seems that the dash for gas takes precedence.”
“To avoid another winter like this one, where millions are expected to fall into fuel poverty, we need a locally-led energy efficiency revolution. Looking at the headline figures, £3bn for boosting energy efficiency is promising, but it’s unclear if this is new money — and not just repackaged promises.”
“We’re calling for a national drive on energy efficiency to permanently reduce household bills and accelerate progress on Net Zero. It might not be an earth-shaking proposal. But as the Government is quickly learning, people don’t want the ground to shake, they just want to be able to afford to pay their bills.”
UK100 will host a ‘Tackling the Energy Price Crisis’ summit on 17th November, featuring the West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester Mayors Tracy Brabin and Andy Burnham, that will focus on the role of local and regional leaders in delivering energy efficiency upgrades.
The event will also launch a new report detailing the cost of upgrading all of Britain’s social homes and the benefits to households in energy bill savings alongside the jobs dividend.
You can register for the event here. More details on speakers will be announced shortly.
UK100 is a network of the most ambitious local leaders working towards Net Zero as soon as possible but no later than 2045. The network helps local leaders collaborate to take decisive action in their communities.
Header image ©Alex Yeung/AdobeStock
In June, UK100 released a new report, Yes We CANZ: Local leaders delivering Clean Air and Net Zero, introducing the concept of “Clean Air Net Zero” (CANZ) — ensuring Net Zero policies include a clean air audit and vice versa. More details on that here.
