Darren Johnson has accused the Mayor of London of "hypocrisy" after the Mayor launched a campaign to increase the uptake of home insulation. The Mayor’s own home insulation programme, which has been proven to help people insulate their homes and save on average £154 per household, has been delayed and underfunded. It has only visited 13,865 homes so far after being delayed by almost a year, and there is no confirmed money to reach 95% of the homes that need insulation.
Darren commented,
"The Mayor has dithered while more than a million people are shivering in their homes this winter. I’m amazed that he claims this is at the top of his to do list. He lost his home insulation budget for future years to cuts, and he has failed to secure any changes to the national scheme that has left London short-changed by £350m.
"While the Government needs to act on rip-off energy bills, the Mayor could have insulated every home in London by now if he and the Government had got their act together."
Notes to editors
The Mayor has stated that Londoners have missed out on £350m of funding since 2005. The RE:NEW programme was set-up in 2009 to tackle this ongoing problem, and involves sending advisors door-to-door helping people install easy measures and access home insulation funding. It has increased uptake to 50% of households in trial areas.
As of the 19th October the Mayor claimed RE:NEW had reached 13,865 homes. More info on RE:NEW can be found online:
http://www.london.gov.uk/priorities/environment/climate-change/energy-efficiency/homes-energy-efficiency-for-tomorrow
Results from the demonstration phase found that households saved an average of £154 on their energy bills, and the Mayor has pointed out that savings would be bigger this winter with energy costs rising.
The first rollout was delayed by almost a year after the Government announced cuts to the Mayor’s economic development budget, which led to months of uncertainty. Darren successfully lobbied the Mayor to protect funding for RE:NEW during this period to reach up to 55,000 homes, but the Mayor has not yet secured future funding commitments to reach the remaining 1,145,000 homes.