I have been pressing for action on climate change for some years. When I was leader of Derby City Council, I set out plans to make Derby self sufficient in clean green energy by 2025. Sadly these plans were jettisoned by the new administration when Labour lost control of the Council in 2008.
But in national government, Labour continued making significant progress. This included insulating millions of homes, making Britain the world leader in offshore wind power, and developing plans for 400,000 new green jobs by 2015
The Labour government also set about making the energy market fairer and ensuring that the most vulnerable in society don’t have to pay more than they can afford to keep warm.
Before the election Labour set out plans for a low carbon revolution in Britain. I was therefore pleased to see the new Con/Dem government include a commitment in the Queen’s Speech to some of the initiatives started by Labour. These included further help towards home energy efficiency and support for carbon capture and storage, but there was also a lot missing from the speech.
There was a deafening silence on fairness. No mention of any plans to make private and social landlords improve the energy efficiency of their properties to help their tenants stay warm and keep their bills down. And no mention of fairer energy bills, with discounts for older, more vulnerable people.
These are things that Labour had planned and which the Government has dropped.
In opposition, I will be working with my Labour colleagues to build on our legacy by putting energy and climate change centre stage. We’ll campaign for an energy policy that is fair as well as green and we’ll support Government measures that help to reduce emissions, and provide more clean energy.
But we will be scrutinising constantly to make sure the Tories and Lib Dems don’t get away with talking big on energy and climate change while doing very little.
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