With energy bill rises of 7-9% already announced by British Gas and Scottish and Southern Energy, Green Party Assembly Member, Darren Johnson has attacked the London Mayor for failing to arm Londoners against the extra costs by protecting his flagship home insulation programme.
People who have already benefited from the programme are saving an average of £173 a year, more than enough to offset the estimated extra £100 per household from rising energy bills. But up to 200,000 households could miss out with the Government axing the Mayor’s funding and the boroughs failing to provide sufficient financial backing.
Darren Johnson said:
"The recent frost will have lots of Londoners worrying about an expensive winter, especially as energy companies start announcing price hikes. The Mayor has completely failed the hundreds of thousands of households that could have saved more than enough money on their energy bills through his home insulation scheme.
"The Mayor has one last chance to secure the money from the Government and the boroughs."
ENDS
Notes to editors
At Mayor’s Question Time today, Darren confirmed that the Mayor has still not received any assurances from the Government and has not lobbied the boroughs despite promising Darren he would do so in September.
The Mayor’s London Development Agency (LDA) was planning to contribute £7.15m over 2010-12 to roll out the home insulation programme ‘RE:NEW’ to every borough in London, following two years of development and testing. It is the Mayor’s flagship programme to tackle climate change.
The Treasury are understood to be axing all LDA programmes except those that are contractually committed. None of the money for RE:NEW is contractually committed, so it could all be lost if the Mayor fails to claw it back from the Treasury.
In late October the Mayor confirmed in a written answer to Darren that the boroughs had only included enough money in their bids to reach 55,000 homes by 2012, compared to the target of 200,000.