Sir Keir Starmer has called for a “massive” home insulation programme to tackle rising energy bills after witnessing how such efforts can work in Yorkshire.
The Labour leader said such work is a “much better answer” to the current problems facing the country than the return of fracking.
There is currently a moratorium on fracking in this country but there have been growing calls from some Tory MPs for shale gas extraction to restart and last week a regulator announced a delay on sealing up wells in Lancashire.
The issue has been the cause of controversy in Yorkshire in recent year, where seven companies had licences for exploration prior to the 2019 ban coming into place.
Speaking during a visit to Dewsbury on Friday during which he heard from local people concerned about substantial rises to the energy bills, Sir Keir said: “I don’t think fracking is the way forward.
“I think the way forward is to turbocharge on renewables, something that should have been done years ago and to fast-forward on nuclear, something that has stalled under this Government.
“At the same time, crucially we need a massive project to insulate people’s homes.
“Only two weeks ago, I was in Kirklees at a council estate there. They have done it with a number of houses I was able to see. I went into see the residents – their homes were warm, their bills have gone way down and that is a much better answer than fracking will ever be to this energy crisis.”
Sir Keir’s comments are the latest in a series of growing cross-party calls for the Government to do more on home insulation ahead of the publication of their new energy strategy.
Last week, Conservative MP for Colne Valley Jason McCartney called on the Government to “turbocharge” a national green homes scheme.
He said that while he welcomed Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s decision in the Spring Statement to axe VAT on energy-efficiency products, he believed the Government can go further.
Mr Sunak has announced that the five per cent VAT rate on having energy-saving materials like solar panels, heat pumps and insulation installed is being cut to zero.
Addressing Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, Mr McCartney said: “I very much welcome the Chancellor scrapping VAT on home energy saving products in his Spring Statement last week but would my Right Honourable Friend agree with me that now really is the time to turbocharge a green homes programme? Let’s insulate homes, let’s help people cut their energy bills and keep warm.”
Mr Kwarteng replied: “Energy efficiency is at the centre of any net zero strategy. I’d be very happy to work with him to make sure we could provide progress.”
Mr McCartney’s remarks follow a similar call by Liberal Democrat peer and Kirklees councillor Baroness Kath Pinnock.
She has called for a national home insulation programme modelled on the one run in Kirklees in the 2000s which saw every household in the area provided with free loft and cavity wall insulation.
In December, the Government was strongly criticised over the “slam dunk fail” of its past Green Homes Grant scheme.
The Public Accounts Committee said low take up of the scheme, offering up to £10,000 in funding to help pay for energy efficiency measures, was down to an “overly complex” with homeowners expected to identify a certified installer and apply for vouchers with the installer receiving the grant funding once they had fitted the measure.
By August 2021, more than half of the applications for funding had been rejected or withdrawn.
The Government’s recent Heat and Buildings Strategy has set out a package of measures to retrofit the nation’s buildings.
In addition this the Government has announced more than £3.9 billion of new funding for decarbonising heat and buildings. This will fund the next three years of investment through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, the Home Upgrade Grant scheme, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and the Heat Networks Transformation Programme.
A Government spokesperson said: “We recognise the pressures people are facing with the cost of living, which is why we have set out a generous £21bn package of support, and the energy price cap continues to insulate millions of customers from volatile global gas prices.
“We are also accelerating our progress in upgrading the energy efficiency of England’s homes, investing over £6.6bn billion to decarbonise homes and buildings and bringing in higher minimum performance standards to ensure all homes meet EPC Band C by 2035.”
Or just nationalise energy and run at cost. Fuck their profits.
It’s a start.
How about we also cap the profits of energy companies instead. And tax the fuck out of profits already made.
I thought that already existed. I remember years ago the attic was insulated. Didn’t cost anything.
There was a government grant available for double glazing, and boiler replacement, which cost me just £100 after applying for it, and included under floor insulation.
I would prefer a nationalised energy supplier and subsidies for low income households, but this country doesn’t like doing that.
A private landlord (running a business) got the exterior of his rental house clad with 4” kingspan for £1000.
Me, a poor home owner can’t get the same grant, will cost me thousands.
We had our wall pumped full of insulation from British Gas for free. Now we have rising damp. They say the material isn’t wet inside the cavity. They fucked us up and won’t remove it.
Its almost as if the ” last labour government” had a reasonably good insulation program that WORKED….. and New Builds were set to all be Carbon neutral…… that got scrapped
So Insulate Britain, sounds familiar.
Another way is to nationalise all energy companies and make it affordable by whatever means available, and to avoid overuse to tackle co2 emissions each household has a quota of energy and if they use more then they pay a premium and if they use less they get rewarded for it.
I’m sure there would be flaws in that generalised outlook but it would be a start.
Im sorry, but thats not the way. Prices will continue to rise and negate the impact of insulation.
Price controls have to be deployed. Literally a profit cap for energy companies.
Nationalise energy production. Massive insulation of homes. Facilitate the switch to heat pumps. Facilitate installation of solar panels on homes.
Oh if only there was a national campaign to bring attention to this issue
That would involve solving a problem for the good of the countries citizens. You can’t get rich from that.
I love the idea but many houses like mine need significant work to ensure that insulation doesn’t just turn into damp.
British Gas charged my brother’s dad some hundreds of pounds for maintenance fees on a meter he never uses in a private garage. BG also never sent anyone to do checks on it after 5 years of it being there. Please explain to me why they’re allowed to charge for a service they’re not providing for a boiler that hasn’t been turned on in half a decade
Honestly though, fuck private heating companies, they should be abolished as far as I’m concerned
Dont give the tories ideas, it will turn out to be some left over cladding from a prevous job…
What about landlords like mine, that refuse to even look into insulation because he claims every owner of all the flats in the building would have to agree?
If this was all paid for by the country’s richest people then yes.
We need complete energy independence and removal from the international energy market, that way it isn’t exposed to global fluctuations.
My house is small fully insulated with the heating only coming on for 4 hours a day, still £300 bill
You have to hand it to Keir Starmer, he’s like a WW2 cook always looking for ways to make an omlette without using eggs.
“So here we have egg-substitute, it’s made from ground up fish heads. No really, it’ll work!”
Hasn’t that been going on for years not exactly original cutting and edge
It’s bollocks, most housing has gone through decades of insulation and still people can’t afford to keep themselves warm .
Have a massive INSTALLATION of green energy systems , solar, heat pumps and even domestic wind turbines
I was thinking about this and it’s only going to be a matter of time before someone starts selling real fireplaces with a vent that you stick out of your window.
Watch now as Tory voting residents of poorly insulated accommodation boo him for siding with lefty commie hippies Insulate Britain.
declare all houses that arent historically significant and cant be made to fit modern standards as condemned. offer residents effected first choice on size for size new build in exchange.
have the gods damn government build the damn houses because private developers only build for profit, not demographic need.
so what you’re saying is that we need to Insulate Britain?
They’ve been saying this for decades, it’s also time to start subsidising air and ground source heat pumps
Maybe he could start a movement?
Warm up Britain? Noooo
Heat up Britain? Nope
Insulate Britain!!! Now that has a catchy ring to it! I love coming up with unique ideas before anyone else!
Cheers Keir, now fuck off back to whichever rock you crawled out from under.
If cold temperatures and heating bills are a constant conversation topic in this country, then we absolutely need to start prioritising it. It’s a basic human need and people are dying of a lack of it.
I think we need to max out our wind capacity too. I mean build every turbine that can reasonably be of value.
We need storage too, but let’s be using 100% renewable whenever possible.
I think someone has shares in a home insulation company…
Why not subsidise a domestic wind turbine for every suitable property in the uk …..
Do we know any Tories with an interest in insulation companies? Good idea for a bung if so?
Didn’t they do this like 15 years ago and all the money went to dodgy firms who just rinsed the scheme?
We need to get rid of the Tories cuz as long as we have all these great ideas, they won’t ever happen with them in power
This is why it fucks me off that Insulate Britain went about blocking motorways, as that didn’t do anything to raise awareness of this issue and everything to put people off of environmentalism.
As an environmentalist myself groups like them and XR give us a terrible image and do nothing to help the cause. They just allow people to turn up and disrupt things without thinking it through.
Anyone want to do a house swap and live in my sweatbox of a flat next winter? It’s an absolute sauna in here regardless of the temperature outside. I’ve used the heating a grand total of once since I moved in a year ago and it wasn’t because I was cold, I just urgently needed to dry some laundry I’d forgotten about. It’s only just gone April and I’ve already put aluminium foil in the window to stop the sun baking me in my bed like a potato.
Serious offer. You sweat it out here, I’ll get nice and chilly at your place. You could save hundreds on heating. I’ll feed your cat.
(I will drink your alcohol, but *only* the cheap stuff.)
I don’t understand why we don’t employ passive haus standards on new builds and have a passive haus template for older homes!? I enquired for a 1930s semi and it almost impossible without forking out thousands just for a report/plan!
The last time they did this it was just cowboys punching holes in walls and not fixing them
This won’t help as I have all the insulation I can get but can’t risk actually putting the heating ON to have any heat to retain!
Nationalise power again.
Most houses in Britain are so shit you’d have to practically knock them down to add proper insulation. Tbh that wouldn’t be so bad, the housing stock desperately needs to be brought up to modern standard with an increase in density.
40 comments
Sir Keir Starmer has called for a “massive” home insulation programme to tackle rising energy bills after witnessing how such efforts can work in Yorkshire.
The Labour leader said such work is a “much better answer” to the current problems facing the country than the return of fracking.
There is currently a moratorium on fracking in this country but there have been growing calls from some Tory MPs for shale gas extraction to restart and last week a regulator announced a delay on sealing up wells in Lancashire.
The issue has been the cause of controversy in Yorkshire in recent year, where seven companies had licences for exploration prior to the 2019 ban coming into place.
Speaking during a visit to Dewsbury on Friday during which he heard from local people concerned about substantial rises to the energy bills, Sir Keir said: “I don’t think fracking is the way forward.
“I think the way forward is to turbocharge on renewables, something that should have been done years ago and to fast-forward on nuclear, something that has stalled under this Government.
“At the same time, crucially we need a massive project to insulate people’s homes.
“Only two weeks ago, I was in Kirklees at a council estate there. They have done it with a number of houses I was able to see. I went into see the residents – their homes were warm, their bills have gone way down and that is a much better answer than fracking will ever be to this energy crisis.”
Sir Keir’s comments are the latest in a series of growing cross-party calls for the Government to do more on home insulation ahead of the publication of their new energy strategy.
Last week, Conservative MP for Colne Valley Jason McCartney called on the Government to “turbocharge” a national green homes scheme.
He said that while he welcomed Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s decision in the Spring Statement to axe VAT on energy-efficiency products, he believed the Government can go further.
Mr Sunak has announced that the five per cent VAT rate on having energy-saving materials like solar panels, heat pumps and insulation installed is being cut to zero.
Addressing Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, Mr McCartney said: “I very much welcome the Chancellor scrapping VAT on home energy saving products in his Spring Statement last week but would my Right Honourable Friend agree with me that now really is the time to turbocharge a green homes programme? Let’s insulate homes, let’s help people cut their energy bills and keep warm.”
Mr Kwarteng replied: “Energy efficiency is at the centre of any net zero strategy. I’d be very happy to work with him to make sure we could provide progress.”
Mr McCartney’s remarks follow a similar call by Liberal Democrat peer and Kirklees councillor Baroness Kath Pinnock.
She has called for a national home insulation programme modelled on the one run in Kirklees in the 2000s which saw every household in the area provided with free loft and cavity wall insulation.
In December, the Government was strongly criticised over the “slam dunk fail” of its past Green Homes Grant scheme.
The Public Accounts Committee said low take up of the scheme, offering up to £10,000 in funding to help pay for energy efficiency measures, was down to an “overly complex” with homeowners expected to identify a certified installer and apply for vouchers with the installer receiving the grant funding once they had fitted the measure.
By August 2021, more than half of the applications for funding had been rejected or withdrawn.
The Government’s recent Heat and Buildings Strategy has set out a package of measures to retrofit the nation’s buildings.
In addition this the Government has announced more than £3.9 billion of new funding for decarbonising heat and buildings. This will fund the next three years of investment through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, the Home Upgrade Grant scheme, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and the Heat Networks Transformation Programme.
A Government spokesperson said: “We recognise the pressures people are facing with the cost of living, which is why we have set out a generous £21bn package of support, and the energy price cap continues to insulate millions of customers from volatile global gas prices.
“We are also accelerating our progress in upgrading the energy efficiency of England’s homes, investing over £6.6bn billion to decarbonise homes and buildings and bringing in higher minimum performance standards to ensure all homes meet EPC Band C by 2035.”
Or just nationalise energy and run at cost. Fuck their profits.
It’s a start.
How about we also cap the profits of energy companies instead. And tax the fuck out of profits already made.
I thought that already existed. I remember years ago the attic was insulated. Didn’t cost anything.
There was a government grant available for double glazing, and boiler replacement, which cost me just £100 after applying for it, and included under floor insulation.
I would prefer a nationalised energy supplier and subsidies for low income households, but this country doesn’t like doing that.
A private landlord (running a business) got the exterior of his rental house clad with 4” kingspan for £1000.
Me, a poor home owner can’t get the same grant, will cost me thousands.
We had our wall pumped full of insulation from British Gas for free. Now we have rising damp. They say the material isn’t wet inside the cavity. They fucked us up and won’t remove it.
Its almost as if the ” last labour government” had a reasonably good insulation program that WORKED….. and New Builds were set to all be Carbon neutral…… that got scrapped
So Insulate Britain, sounds familiar.
Another way is to nationalise all energy companies and make it affordable by whatever means available, and to avoid overuse to tackle co2 emissions each household has a quota of energy and if they use more then they pay a premium and if they use less they get rewarded for it.
I’m sure there would be flaws in that generalised outlook but it would be a start.
Im sorry, but thats not the way. Prices will continue to rise and negate the impact of insulation.
Price controls have to be deployed. Literally a profit cap for energy companies.
Nationalise energy production. Massive insulation of homes. Facilitate the switch to heat pumps. Facilitate installation of solar panels on homes.
Oh if only there was a national campaign to bring attention to this issue
That would involve solving a problem for the good of the countries citizens. You can’t get rich from that.
I love the idea but many houses like mine need significant work to ensure that insulation doesn’t just turn into damp.
British Gas charged my brother’s dad some hundreds of pounds for maintenance fees on a meter he never uses in a private garage. BG also never sent anyone to do checks on it after 5 years of it being there. Please explain to me why they’re allowed to charge for a service they’re not providing for a boiler that hasn’t been turned on in half a decade
Honestly though, fuck private heating companies, they should be abolished as far as I’m concerned
Dont give the tories ideas, it will turn out to be some left over cladding from a prevous job…
What about landlords like mine, that refuse to even look into insulation because he claims every owner of all the flats in the building would have to agree?
If this was all paid for by the country’s richest people then yes.
We need complete energy independence and removal from the international energy market, that way it isn’t exposed to global fluctuations.
My house is small fully insulated with the heating only coming on for 4 hours a day, still £300 bill
You have to hand it to Keir Starmer, he’s like a WW2 cook always looking for ways to make an omlette without using eggs.
“So here we have egg-substitute, it’s made from ground up fish heads. No really, it’ll work!”
Hasn’t that been going on for years not exactly original cutting and edge
It’s bollocks, most housing has gone through decades of insulation and still people can’t afford to keep themselves warm .
Have a massive INSTALLATION of green energy systems , solar, heat pumps and even domestic wind turbines
I was thinking about this and it’s only going to be a matter of time before someone starts selling real fireplaces with a vent that you stick out of your window.
Watch now as Tory voting residents of poorly insulated accommodation boo him for siding with lefty commie hippies Insulate Britain.
declare all houses that arent historically significant and cant be made to fit modern standards as condemned. offer residents effected first choice on size for size new build in exchange.
have the gods damn government build the damn houses because private developers only build for profit, not demographic need.
so what you’re saying is that we need to Insulate Britain?
They’ve been saying this for decades, it’s also time to start subsidising air and ground source heat pumps
Maybe he could start a movement?
Warm up Britain? Noooo
Heat up Britain? Nope
Insulate Britain!!! Now that has a catchy ring to it! I love coming up with unique ideas before anyone else!
Cheers Keir, now fuck off back to whichever rock you crawled out from under.
If cold temperatures and heating bills are a constant conversation topic in this country, then we absolutely need to start prioritising it. It’s a basic human need and people are dying of a lack of it.
I think we need to max out our wind capacity too. I mean build every turbine that can reasonably be of value.
We need storage too, but let’s be using 100% renewable whenever possible.
I think someone has shares in a home insulation company…
Why not subsidise a domestic wind turbine for every suitable property in the uk …..
Do we know any Tories with an interest in insulation companies? Good idea for a bung if so?
Didn’t they do this like 15 years ago and all the money went to dodgy firms who just rinsed the scheme?
We need to get rid of the Tories cuz as long as we have all these great ideas, they won’t ever happen with them in power
This is why it fucks me off that Insulate Britain went about blocking motorways, as that didn’t do anything to raise awareness of this issue and everything to put people off of environmentalism.
As an environmentalist myself groups like them and XR give us a terrible image and do nothing to help the cause. They just allow people to turn up and disrupt things without thinking it through.
Anyone want to do a house swap and live in my sweatbox of a flat next winter? It’s an absolute sauna in here regardless of the temperature outside. I’ve used the heating a grand total of once since I moved in a year ago and it wasn’t because I was cold, I just urgently needed to dry some laundry I’d forgotten about. It’s only just gone April and I’ve already put aluminium foil in the window to stop the sun baking me in my bed like a potato.
Serious offer. You sweat it out here, I’ll get nice and chilly at your place. You could save hundreds on heating. I’ll feed your cat.
(I will drink your alcohol, but *only* the cheap stuff.)
I don’t understand why we don’t employ passive haus standards on new builds and have a passive haus template for older homes!? I enquired for a 1930s semi and it almost impossible without forking out thousands just for a report/plan!
The last time they did this it was just cowboys punching holes in walls and not fixing them
This won’t help as I have all the insulation I can get but can’t risk actually putting the heating ON to have any heat to retain!
Nationalise power again.
Most houses in Britain are so shit you’d have to practically knock them down to add proper insulation. Tbh that wouldn’t be so bad, the housing stock desperately needs to be brought up to modern standard with an increase in density.