On a visit to Scotland, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has demanded that the UK Government cancel plans to hike the average household energy bill by £500 in April.
The party is calling for cuts to peoples' bills instead, combined with a new energy support package for businesses, leisure centres, schools and hospitals across Scotland. This would be paid for with a tougher windfall tax on the “bonanza bonuses” of oil and gas bosses.
The party leader, who is visiting Parliamentary target seat East Dunbartonshire and Wendy Chamberlain’s North East Fife seat before attending the Scottish Lib Dem conference this weekend, is also calling on the Scottish Government to ramp up home insulation.
The Liberal Democrats plans would mean that in Scotland the average household would be £310.60 better off. In total, Scottish families would save £766m.
The Scottish Lib Dems are also calling on the Scottish Government to launch an emergency nationwide insulation programme, to bring down bills, create jobs and put a stop to Scotland missing its climate change targets.
Davey said: “People in Scotland are struggling with soaring energy bills now more than ever.
“The chaotic Conservative government in Westminster is failing millions of people by refusing to commit to more support. Meanwhile, the Scottish Government have failed to back Liberal Democrats calls to launch an emergency home insulation programme.
“With no plan to deal with this cost-of-living crisis for people, both out-of-touch governments are making the energy crisis so much worse.”
In response, Zero Carbon Buildings Minister Patrick Harvie said: “We are already taking bold, ambitious steps to ensure we make our homes and buildings warmer, greener and cheaper to run.
“Over 150,000 households in Scotland already live in homes which are warmer and cheaper to heat, thanks to investment by the Scottish Government.
“We estimate that these households can expect to save over £936m on their fuel bills and reduce carbon emissions by 3.4 million tonnes over the lifetime of these improvements.
“Our Heat in Buildings Strategy sets a hugely ambitious vision to cut carbon and improve energy efficiency across Scotland’s homes over the coming years and the report notes that the policies and targets set out in the Strategy will meet our overall objective for 2045.
“We recognise that this is a decisive decade for action which is why we have been working to support and speed up the delivery of zero and low emission heating systems and energy efficiency measures such as insulation – backed by Scottish Government funding of at least £1.8bn over the course of this parliament.”
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