22 October 2021, 9:30am
“We need to move rapidly. What we do in the next 3-4 years, I believe, will determine the future of humanity.” – Sir David King, ex-Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government
Insulate Britain has considered the British Government’s Heat and Buildings Strategy, the Net Zero Strategy and the Cost of Net Zero report. We concluded that, while these would have been a good first step 30 years ago, they completely fail to meet the challenges we now face. What we need in this ‘period of consequence’ is a wartime style national effort, a united front of shared sacrifice, not a plan to cross your fingers and hope for the best. Therefore Insulate Britain will continue our campaign of nonviolent civil resistance.
The government’s plan to decarbonise our homes fails on almost every measure. The £450m allocated to grants for heat pumps will help just 30,000 households a year. This is a drop in the ocean compared with the 900,000 a year needed by 2028 according to the government’s own climate advisors (the Climate Change Committee).
The government’s £1.75bn funding for insulating social housing and the homes of those on low income will achieve only around 4% of what the Climate Change Committee recommends we should achieve by 2035. The government has ignored industry calls for a fully funded national insulation scheme, despite its economic benefits, and has provided no incentives for homeowners to upgrade the insulation of their properties.[1]
Insulating Britain’s leaky homes should be central to the government’s Net Zero plans as the best first step to cut emissions and defend our country. Yet it is ignored, the cold and the hungry in our country remain unprotected, many will die this winter and the fate of future generations is being sealed on our watch. Soon we will be unable to save them.
Carbon emissions are likely to kill us. If not us, then certainly our children, and by the time their children come into this world they will face the loss of all they love, starvation and death. In a liberal democracy, the government is not above the law and its first duty is the welfare of the people. Instead, it is sacrificing ordinary people in the name of private self interest. This is treason.
Our ancestors fought a civil war to remove such tyranny from these islands and sacrificed their lives to win the rights and freedoms we now enjoy as citizens. Today it is our turn, our responsibility, to rise up against tyranny. We owe that to our ancestors, to our fellow citizens and to those that come after us in the great chain of life.
ENDS
Press contact: 07737 457105
Email: insulatebritainpress@protonmail.com
High quality photos and video footage available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Kucq-NfhnZLGJWwLx1HX03cWR7M9Y2-m
Website: https://www.insulatebritain.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/insulatebritain
Twitter: https://twitter.com/insulatelove
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8N5mAeeCLbD-AFUqtPaF0g
Notes to Editors
[1] https://eciu.net/insights/2021/gaps-in-new-strategy-leave-uk-homes-leaking-heat
About Insulate Britain
Insulate Britain is a new campaign group that is calling on the UK government to put in place policy and funding for a national home insulation programme starting with all social housing.
We demand the Prime Minister and the government to #getonwiththejob, face up to their responsibility and lead our country through the climate crisis.
We are ordinary British citizens with simple and achievable demands to #INSULATEBRITAIN
The UK government must immediately promise to fully fund and take responsibility for the insulation of all social housing in Britain.
We demand a national home insulation strategy that gives British people the justice they deserve: a future for our loved ones, lower energy bills and safer living conditions.
We are scared: our livelihoods are at risk and the futures of our children are uncertain
The Climate Crisis is a threat to all: we demand the government to act now.
Our Demands
1. That the UK government immediately promises to fully fund and take responsibility for the insulation of all social housing in Britain by 2025;
2. That the UK government immediately promises to produce within four months a legally binding national plan to fully fund and take responsibility for the full low-energy and low-carbon whole-house retrofit , with no externalised costs, of all homes in Britain by 2030 as part of a just transition to full decarbonisation of all parts of society and the economy.
Further information about Insulate Britain and our demands here: https://www.insulatebritain.com/
Technical Report on home energy efficiency here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jt5FI-kinEXoqZtPDrCvnAVQ2EFn8Aea/view
Insulate Britain ‘Blue Lights’ policy: our policy is, and has always been to move out of the way for emergency vehicles with ‘blue lights’ on.