The House of Commons has done much in the last 12 month’s to infuriate the electorate but one snub to the poorest families passed almost unnoticed. Last March a private members bill aimed at eliminating fuel poverty was lost due to too few MPs being bothered to turn-up (Devastating blow for households in fuel poverty). The two main provisions of the bill allowed for the upgrading of homes to make them more energy efficient and the introduction of cheaper social tariffs for the poorest consumers. The bill was aimed at the 5.5 million households spending 10% of more of income on gas and electricity. It is estimated that the energy savings would cut average bills from £1,272 to £610 per year – a saving of more than 50% and a huge reduction in each beneficiary’s carbon footprint.
The reading of the bill was timetabled for Friday afternoon (when MPs rarely bother to turn up) and lacked government support.
That the New Labour government should allow the bill to fail by refusing to support it speaks much of its priorities and the importance it attaches to both helping the most vulnerable in our society and green issues – it’s attachment to either being as slim as Gordon Brown still being Prime Minister on May 6th (and that cloud of dust you see is Slim, a-whooping and a-hollering heading for the Mexican border). If politicians are serious about de-carbonising our economies then these are the types of measures they should be enthusiastically adopting.
It would be churlish not to mention that the bill was sponsored Liberal Democrat MP David Heath – I’m not a Lib Dem supporter but hats off
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment