Ministers are facing calls to move British clocks an extra hour forward to Central European time to help alleviate the cost of living crisis.
Liberal Democrat peer John Lee said moving to Paris time would help reduce household bills as it would maximize daylight in the evening.
Lord Lee said the government should take “double daylight saving time” seriously as inflation reaches a 30-year high and energy bills continue to rise.
“This is a serious, long-term problem for a significant part of the population, and I think the government needs to look at it very seriously,” he said. “Double summer time would be relatively cheap, it would not cost the government anything significant, as far as I know.
Lee, president of the Association of Leading Visitors and a former tourism minister, said he would ask the government about his position on double daylight saving time when the House of Lords returns from vacation later this month.
Such a move would put British watches two hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time in the summer months and one hour ahead in the winter, as in the mainland, including France, Spain and Italy.
The last time the clocks were changed to save energy was during World War II, but time returned to normal after the war.
The concept of British summer time was established in the United Kingdom in 1916 following a campaign by William Willett, great-great-grandfather of Chris Martin of Coldplay.
Willett had noticed with horror while riding a horse before dawn through London how many Britons had slept most of the summer day.
Activists estimate that extending daylight hours will save each household 152 hours of electricity each year, as most people wake up after sunrise for most of the year and use artificial light in their homes at night.
Supporters say people will enjoy an extra hour of light for an additional 11 months of the year, while an extra hour of morning darkness will have to endure only during the winter months.
In recent decades, there have been several attempts by MPs to advocate for a change in summer time, most recently in 2010 with the 10:10 campaign.
A 1993 study by the Institute for Policy Studies estimated that the change would save more than £ 260 million in electricity bills even then. However, the government told lawmakers in the Energy and Climate Change Committee in 2010 that the effects “are likely to be small in scale and may even be uncertain.”
Historically, the biggest opposition comes from farmers in Scotland, who will have to work in the dark for most of the morning.
However, their opposition seems to have eased thanks to modern advances in agriculture. The Scottish National Farmers’ Union said it was “open to further independent analysis”.
However, the idea of adopting the same time as France, Spain and Italy may raise eyebrows among some Eurosceptic conservative backstage, now the UK has left the European Union.
Lee, a former Tory MP, said: “I think it would be very foolish to kick him in contact, just because it’s something that’s happening more in continental Europe. I can’t believe they would be so selfish or embarrassed to take that approach. “
Add Comment