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Ken pledges lower energy bills for Londoners
Ken Livingstone today pledged to cut the cost of living for Londoners through series of new ambitious measures to tackle the rising cost of energy bills.
If he is elected on May 3rd, Ken will:
1. Secure London’s fair share of national energy efficiency funding to help cut Londoners’ energy bills by £150 a year
Under Boris Johnson London has lost out on over £400 million of funding for home energy efficiency that could have been secured from energy utilities’ national obligations. His own RE:NEW scheme has only delivered measures to 40,000 homes, against his target of 200,000 by May 2012. This has meant hundreds of thousands of London households paying higher energy bills than they needed to.
Ken will call an immediate Energy Summit of all the main domestic energy suppliers and work with them to ensure that London gains the maximum possible benefit from the remaining free insulation programmes that end in 2012 and gets its’ fair share of the £1.3bn per year energy companies are required to spend on home insulation from 2013. On average, a household that installs proper insulation will save £150 a year off their energy bills.
2. Prioritise insulating older people’s homes.
According to AgeUK, twenty-two thousand UK pensioners died prematurely last year simply because they could not afford to heat their home adequately. If London can secure its’ fair share of home energy efficiency funding then free insulation would be available to every pensioner in London who is struggling with energy bills (ie qualifying as the government’s ’super-priority’ group).
3. Establish the first ever London Energy Purchasing Co-operative. The co-operative would cut the price Londoners pay for electricity and gas by purchasing energy on the wholesale markets, freeing Londoners from major energy suppliers who have presided over huge price increases.
4. Make cutting Londoner’s fuel bills and reducing carbon emissions a Mayoral priority.
Ken will take personal charge of the drive to improve energy efficiency and cut Londoners’ heating bill costs. He will require a weekly progress report from City Hall officers and will chair a ‘Warm Green Homes’ task force to drive the agenda through.
Ken said; “In the 21st century it should be completely unacceptable that thousands of children, families and pensioners in London shiver in their homes each winter because they can’t afford to heat their homes. Yet year after year we have seen huge hikes in gas and electricity bills and inaction from David Cameron and Boris Johnson.
“Alongside my pledges to cut the fares and campaign for lower rents, cutting Londoner’s fuel bills is at the very top of my agenda. If I am elected I pledge to:
“Firstly, take personal charge of an unprecedented drive to insulate hundreds of thousands of homes which will save Londoners hundreds of pounds. It’s astonishing that London has missed out on over £400 million home insulation funding. I will put the full resources of the GLA behind a drive to ensure every single penny of insulation funding that is available to the capital is used to cut Londoners’ fuel bills.
“Secondly, I believe the Mayor must act when the big energy companies impose huge hikes to Londoners’ fuel bills. I will establish the first ever London Energy Purchasing Co-operative to provide a cheaper alternative to the big energy companies and save Londoners money.
“And finally I will make energy costs a Mayoral priority. If I’m elected I will call an immediate Energy Summit of all the main domestic energy suppliers and chair a ‘Warm Green Homes’ task force to provide leadership and take action to cut Londoner’s fuel bills.”
The average cost of keeping a home warm has risen by over £300 a year since 2008. The Citizens’ Advice Bureau has reported 45% of Londoners are worried that they will not be able to pay their next heating and electricity bills.
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