7 February 2022, 8am
We are not heroes, we are not clairvoyants; Insulating Britain’s cold and leaky homes is the first no-brainer step in reducing our energy needs as a nation. The construction industry is primed and ready to go. The experts are all saying a national retrofit programme to insulate our homes is vital to tackle the cost of living crisis. More and more ordinary people are joining the dots: Insulate Britain now to save money and save lives. [1] [2]
On August 20th we wrote to Boris Johnson laying out why we were demanding that he get on with the job of protecting the public. In September we began our campaign of civil resistance by blocking the M25 repeatedly, the UK’s most potent symbol of our carbon intensive way of life. Ministers claimed we were endangering the public, while police officers thanked us as they released us from custody with no charges. Journalists said we had ‘no right’ to disrupt the public and drivers told us they just needed to get to work.
During our campaign we have repeatedly said, “We will get off the roads as soon as we have a meaningful statement we can trust from the government that they will Insulate Britain’s homes, starting with social housing”.
After 4 weeks on the roads, in October, we paused our campaign and once more wrote to Boris Johnson, asking him to do the right thing to keep us all safe and Insulate Britain by 2030. We had no response from Johnson except his remarks that we should be ‘insulated snuggly in prison”.[4]
Is with an extremely heavy heart that today we have to announce that as Insulate Britain we have failed.
We failed to move our irresponsible government to take meaningful action to prevent thousands of us from dying in our cold homes during the energy price crisis. We have failed to make this heartless government put its people over profit and insulate our homes to do our part in lowering the UK’s emissions. We have failed to encourage our government to get up from their drinks parties, go to their desk and get on with the job.
And we failed in getting enough of you to join us on the roads to hold this treasonous and corrupt government to account.
We did not take part in this campaign to start an insulation brand. We did not cause you disruption to make history as Britain’s quickest growing advertising campaign. We took part to force our government to stop failing its people.
We will continue our campaign of civil resistance because we only have the next two to three years to sort it out and prevent us completely failing our children and hitting climate tipping points we cannot control.
Now we must accept that we have lost another year, so our next campaign of civil resistance against the betrayal of this country must be even more ambitious. More of us must take a stand. More of you need to join us. We don’t get to be bystanders. We either act against evil or we participate in it.
We haven’t gone away. We’re just getting started.
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] Insulate Britain understands that there will be a day of civil resistance on the M25 on Saturday 19th February at midday inspired by our campaign. The event named ‘RAVE ON THE M25’ has been arranged in response to public outrage at the Cost of Living Crisis and our government’s seeming inability to lead with integrity and responsibility in times of crisis. We are aware some Insulate Britain Supporters will be in attendance. More info here: https://fb.me/e/1mohQgaY1
[2] As OFGEM announced energy prices would rise 54% last Thursday 5 people from Insulate Britain were sentenced to between 24 – 42 days in prison in the High Court for asking the government to ensure we can heat our homes using less energy last year. One of the 5, Ben Taylor received an additional sentence of 32 days despite already being in prison for nearly 3 months on a 6 month sentence. https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/price-cap-increase-ps693-april
[3] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-60196439
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lzPy_nh_KU (1:16)
[5] 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.