Responding to Kemi Badenoch’s plans to remove VAT from household energy bills for the next three years funded by scrapping renewable energy schemes and green levies, Green MP Hannah Spencer said:
“Kemi Badenoch is not living in the same world as the rest of us – where we can see first-hand that decades of failure to properly insulate our homes and invest in renewables has left us all vulnerable to ridiculous price shocks.
“The Tories, Reform and right-wing media are deliberately failing to explain that UK oil and gas are priced on global markets, and new fields take years to deliver while adding only limited supply. Hundreds of licences issued between 2010 and 2024 have delivered the equivalent of just 36 days’ extra gas.
“Labour’s position isn’t good enough either. A “ban” on new licences doesn’t mean much if loopholes like tiebacks still allow new drilling to go ahead.
“Successive governments keep failing to listen to ordinary people who’re sick of seeing bills go up, and workers like me who have experience in this industry. We’ve been saying for years that we have the leakiest homes in Europe. It would be much cheaper to invest in a proper, well-regulated national insulation scheme than to have to keep subsidising people’s bills and pouring public money into energy company profits.
“The Green Party is clear: stop new oil and gas, close the loopholes, and invest properly in the transition to renewable energy.
“Our hard-earned wages are currently going on tax cuts for fossil fuel companies. That money should be redirected into proper support for oil and gas workers to transition into secure, skilled jobs in green industries. That’s how you cut bills, protect workers and deliver real energy security – not by propping up a declining industry.”
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