Martin calls for £500 credit crunch cut in energy bills

1.28.00pm GMT Sat 7th Mar 2009

LIBERAL DEMOCRAT SHADOW ENVIRONMENT MINISTER Martin Horwood told delegates at the party's spring conference in Harrogate this weekend that instead of wasting £12.5 billion cutting VAT, the government should have spent the money on cutting fuel bills for the least well-off.

'People and businesses tell me they have hardly noticed the cut in VAT. If we had committed just £2.3 billion of that money to funding insulation and energy efficiency measures like condensing boilers, we could have completely funded energy efficiency packages for a million of our poorest households and subsidised a million more' said Martin. 'In many older homes with solid walls that would mean an annual saving of £500 or more'

The Cheltenham MP was speaking at a packed conference meeting organised by Green Liberal Democrats with the Energy Saving Trust. The meeting was called to highlight for combining anti-recessionary measures with energy efficiency.

'It makes sense for households, for businesses and for the UK as a whole' said Martin 'If you invest in energy efficiency now, it will start saving you money straight away. Public spending on household energy efficiency will provide a welcome boost for the building trades and many of those small businesses that are being particularly badly hit by the recession. For households at risk from unemployment and cut-backs, this could make a vital difference to their household bills. For businesses, it can make a dramatic effect on the bottom line. Cheltenham-based Plexus Technology told me they could save some companies and organisations as much as 50% of their fuel bills simply by managing their energy more efficiently. And for the UK as a whole, it could make our whole economy more resource-efficient and better-placed to take advantage of the upturn when it comes.'