The well-known propaganda group Insulate Britain is happy to allow the government to take its name if officials cannot come up with a different label for their isolation scheme, she told the Guardian.
According to a report in the Times on government plans to insulate homes, during a policy challenge meeting, Officer 10 suggested calling it “Isolate Britain” – a proposal quickly rejected when someone else said it was already the name of the destructive direct action group.
Campaigners say the government is welcome to use the name – but like other environmental groups, they warn that isolation plans as they stand are based on attacks by other environmental funds and lack the ambition to deal with them. the problem.
Johnson reportedly told ministers to divert more than £ 1 billion from existing schemes to focus on isolating poorer households at risk of a sharp increase in gas bills. Funds can be diverted from a number of sources, including the £ 1bn public sector decarbonisation scheme, which focuses on making public buildings more energy efficient, and the £ 450m boiler upgrade scheme. According to the proposal, the money will be used to supplement the “energy company’s obligation” collected from bills to finance energy efficiency measures for poorer households.
In a direct action campaign last autumn, Insulate Britain members caused widespread outrage by blocking busy roads and motorways in London and the South East of England. But they grabbed the headlines and pushed the issue of home isolation – one of the less sexy solutions to reduce fossil fuel dependence – firmly on the political agenda.
Since then, the Labor Party has outlined proposals to insulate 2 million homes in one year, with its leader Keir Starmer describing home insulation as a “national mission”.
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“We are happy to name them… we are not valuable for that,” said Liam Norton, a spokesman for the group. “The main thing is that people are experiencing a cost of living crisis; the main thing is just to keep working. ” But Norton described the 10 proposals as a gimmick, with “nowhere near the ambition it should have.”
His assessment was supported by Friends of the Earth, whose policy leader Mike Childs said: “When there are more than 5 million homes that could benefit from basic home heating measures, such as attic or cavity insulation, it’s clear that we need a well-funded, free street-to-street insulation program to minimize the amount of energy our homes lose.
“Such a comprehensive plan would cost around £ 4-6 billion, much more than the amount the prime minister is said to be asking for.
The scheme, if implemented, is now more likely to be called the Great Britain’s Isolation Scheme, according to the Times.
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