The Green Party is urging the Chancellor to ‘ditch the hard hat posturing’ and invest in projects fit for the future. Ahead of the Autumn statement the Party’s Finance Speaker, Molly Scott Cato MEP, has released a report which spells out priority areas for building a ‘fair, sustainable economy’.
In their policy paper released today the Greens propose four priorities:
The flagship investment would be a massive, labour-intensive free nationwide home retrofit insulation programme, concentrating particularly on areas where fuel poverty is most serious.
At a cost of £45bn over 5 years this could insulate 9 million homes in total and take at least 2 million homes out of fuel poverty, and create well over 100,000 jobs.
On housing, the party would seek to provide 500,000 social rented homes by spending £6 billion a year over 5 years, removing borrowing caps from local councils, and creating 35,000 jobs.
Molly Scott Cato MEP said:
“It’s time for the government to ditch the hard hat posturing and invest in what this country really needs for the future. We reject an investment policy based on the three Hs – Hinkley, HS2, and Heathrow – which are vanity projects that do not meet our national needs in the 21st century.
“Instead we call on the Chancellor to make investments that would help those who are struggling as a result of Osborne's austerity, particularly by offering a nationwide programme of home insulation and freeing local authorities from the borrowing cap so that they can invest in social housing.”