Reading’s older homes need decent insulation to cut fuel bills and tackle poverty, to cut carbon emissions and to create jobs
By Cllr David McElroy
In Reading over 7,000 households are living in fuel poverty and can’t afford their energy bills. They have to choose between heating and eating, and we’re seeing a government more focussed on its own problems than those of the country.
The price of heating is set to soar, and our campaign for a mass insulation scheme to cut fuel poverty and tackle climate change has never been so important. If you agree sign our petition here https://bit.ly/warmerreading
Reading’s Labour-run council refuses to help residents meet the cost of insulation
Many of us in Reading live in poorly insulated and draughty houses, full of history and gaps in the walls.
Friends of the Earth estimate that in Reading 4,000 homes per year need to be properly insulated to cut climate changing pollution and poverty.
Each year at budget time we’ve called on the Council to invest in insulation grants and to create the role of Home Energy Conservation Officer to help residents get their homes insulated.
Each year this has been voted down by the Labour administration.
But we aren’t giving up on a greener, warmer town.
Join us in calling on Reading Borough Council to do everything it can to insulate more homes in the town https://bit.ly/warmerreading
The Tories axed the Green Homes Grant in 2021 and have no sensible replacement plan
The Green Homes Grant, that offered households the opportunity to insulate their homes and power them with renewable energy, was axed by the Conservative government last year.
The Green Party has called for emergency grants to homeowners, landlords and councils to fund immediate insulation improvements to those at risk of fuel poverty.
So many of our politicians declare things an emergency because it sounds as though they should, and then they go back to treating it as they always have done – someone else’s problem.
That’s why it’s so important to have Greens on the Council.
When we call something an emergency, we also call for immediate action.
There have been years of inaction on fuel poverty at a local and national level.
We need a large-scale insulation programme to ensure our homes are warm and comfortable, reduce carbon emissions and create thousands of green jobs.
Vote Green in May for a better future for Reading
Sometimes (whisper it!) a little while after the Green Party suggests something, the Labour party adopts it as their own policy. So we don’t give up hope.
Thousands of people voted Green in Reading at the last local elections, and we know they’ve voted for hope in a better future.
Across Reading, the Green Party are now the third party ahead of the Lib Dems.
There are now five Green Party councillors and we were the only party to make a gain at the last council elections.
At the May 2022 boundary change council elections all Reading councillors are up for election.
Based on our year-round hard work we hope to make gains like in Katesgrove ward where last time Louise Keane had the biggest vote increase of any party and almost won.
We don’t just want to win for the sake of winning, but to give a voice to so many residents without one, to make a real difference, and to show how better decisions for people and planet can be made if there’s a Green in the room.
Cllr David McElroy is a Green Party councillor for Redlands Ward on Reading Borough Council
