In his Autumn Statement, the Chancellor George Osborne today published a new gas strategy that could create up to 30 new gas fired power stations and give tax breaks to the gas fracking industry. At the same time he ignored calls from the biggest fuel poverty coalition ever formed in the UK to use carbon tax revenue to super-insulate UK homes.
The Energy Bill Revolution is an alliance of over 120 major companies, charities, consumer groups and unions which says that there is enough carbon tax revenue to end fuel poverty and in time make every home highly energy efficient. A recent study for the campaign by the prestigious economic consultancy Cambridge Econometrics found that using carbon tax in this way could create more jobs and growth than any comparable Government spending programme or tax break.
Ed Matthew, the Director of the Energy Bill Revolution campaign said: “Igniting a dash for gas not only threatens to bust UK carbon budgets, it is economically illiterate. A programme to super insulate UK homes could slash UK gas consumption. It would also create more shovel ready jobs than anything else the Government could do. The Chancellor’s addiction to gas threatens to turn every UK household into a fossil fuel junky and undermines the best opportunity we have to re-build the British economy.”
The Government is projected to collect over £2 billion in carbon tax revenue in 2013, rising to £4 billion per year by 2020. This is enough to super insulate over half a million homes each year and create 130,000 jobs but the Government has no plans to recycle it back to households to make their homes energy efficient. Meanwhile the Government has slashed overall funding for fuel poor households by 26% and cut energy efficiency funding for fuel poor households in half.
For more information contact Ed Matthew, Director of the Energy Bill Revolution, on 07827 157906
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