As the full horror of the gathering energy crisis takes shape and the party of austerity prepares to borrow £150bn just to pay the bills, government ministers are desperate for you to remember one thing: it is all Vladimir Putin’s fault. Although the terrifying spike in gas prices is driven by the economic war Putin is waging on Europe, the emergency we face this winter is not simply a product of those high prices. It’s also a product of successive Conservative governments wilfully dismissing policies that would have reduced our reliance on gas in the first place.
Take insulating homes and buildings. The past decade has been a period of dismal neglect for one of the most economically obvious policies. Report after report, campaign after campaign, year after year, governments have been reminded of the prudence of investing to make our buildings cheaper and cleaner to heat. Direct grants for those on low incomes, financial support for households and private firms, and properly funded schemes for the public sector could have ended the UK’s reign as the least insulated country in western Europe. Adopting these policies would have cost less than £5bn, and returned money to the Treasury over time through myriad economic benefits, even before gas prices skyrocketed.
