One of Keir Starmer’s pledges when elected last year was to invest £6.6 billion insulating homes. Since then, stuck in their iron-clad fiscal straitjacket, Starmer and chancellor Rachel Reeves are discussing watering this down.
Putting the short-term whims of the ‘markets’ above the long-term needs of working-class people, cutting this funding would mean thousands of jobs are at risk. And all of us stuck in poorly insulated homes and flats will pay the price. Whether that’s with the increased risk of mould and the health problems which come with it, or paying more for the ever-increasing cost of heating. That’s a double whammy for those pensioners who have lost their winter fuel payment.
How much energy is lost every year from badly insulated homes? £1 in every £3 spent heating a home is lost though the walls, windows and roof. Energy production is still reliant on polluting fossil fuels, as measures to cut emissions are also on Starmer’s chopping block. Britain’s rivers are at exceptionally low levels, as the impact of climate change worsens the risk of droughts every year, with all the knock-on effects to food production, infrastructure stress and impacts on our health.
What’s the alternative to Starmer’s penny-pinching austerity drive? Bring the energy companies, construction firms and the factories making building materials into democratic public ownership, under workers’ control and management. That way we could use the resources that exist to build the thousands of homes we need, insulate them and improve existing stock, and shift production away from polluting fossil fuels to start to reverse capitalism’s environmental destruction.
