This country is in crisis. Inflation sky-rocketing, more and more people having to rely on foodbanks or choose between heating their home and eating, millions of children in poverty. There is a horrific war in Europe, and the climate emergency is only getting more urgent.
Yet the main parties are chronically failing to deal with the problems we face. The Conservatives, distracted by partygate and sleaze, have allowed the cost of living to spiral out of control, and are placing the greatest burden on the poorest while allowing oil and gas firms and Tory donors to make massive profits.
Labour are not offering much better. Their record in government nationally and locally shows that they have failed to address the urgent need to make Britain’s leaky homes warmer and more energy-efficient. Labour councils like Lambeth in London would rather knock down social housing estates and displace their tenants to make way for private flats than upgrade these homes for working people.
Greens have a better plan. We would invest £25 billion per year in upgrading homes, installing renewable energy for millions across the country.
Insulation programmes may not sound very glamorous but what they can deliver is nothing short of a transformation. Imagine — a warm, snug home even on the coldest days. Little or no heating bill at all. A neighbourhood that has almost zero carbon emissions.
And in the immediate term, we must help those in most urgent need. We would do this by restoring the £20 uplift to Universal Credit and double it to £40 per week. And we would provide emergency fuel payments to all households.
This support can be paid for through taxes on the dizzying profits made by oil and gas companies, and by taxing the elite who are seizing more and more of the nation’s — and the planet’s — wealth.
Where Greens are in power, in places like Brighton, Lewes, Stroud and Sheffield, we are already driving forward change. In the past three years the number of Green councillors has nearly tripled, shaking up councils that have for too long been dominated by the tired, old parties. Voters are switching to the Greens, showing that there is no such thing as a “safe seat”, as more people turn to us as the only party with the answers.
