29 September, 2021, AM
This morning, Insulate Britain has blocked the M25, breaking last week’s High Court injunction for the second time, despite the threat of unlimited fines and lengthy prison sentences.
According to the injunction granted to National Highways Ltd, those involved “may be held to be in contempt of court and may be imprisoned, fined or have their assets seized.” [1]
A spokesperson for Insulate Britain said this morning:
We are going nowhere. You can raid our savings. You can confiscate our property. You can deny us our liberty and put us behind bars. But shooting the messenger can never destroy the message: that this country is going to hell unless you take emergency action to stop putting carbon into the air. Boris get on with the job.”
In March, the government announced £300 million extra funding for green home upgrades in England, bringing total government funding for energy efficiency and low carbon heating in 2021/22 to £1.3 billion. [2]
Talking yesterday about the level of funding required to properly address the UK’s leaky homes, Tim Gough, a senior lecturer at the School of Architecture and Landscape at Kingston University, and a registered architect said
“This amount of £1.3 billion is about 0.2% of what is needed in order to properly insulate the 29 million homes in the UK and it’s not even beginning to get close to the order of cost needed to respond to what Sir David King said last Thursday on Channel 4 News. He said that the government needs to take “very, very severe actions”. That means hundreds of billions of pounds, not peanuts.
“The government should bear in mind that an investment of the order of £0.5 to £0.75 trillion is needed in order to address this problem, but this investment will essentially wipe out 90% of heating bills for homeowners in this country, resulting in a 15% reduction in carbon emissions at a stroke. This is why it has to be done by 2030.”
ENDS
Press contact: 07737 457105
Email: insulatebritainpress@protonmail.com
High quality photos and video footage available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Kucq-NfhnZLGJWwLx1HX03cWR7M9Y2-m
Website: https://www.insulatebritain.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/insulatebritain
Twitter: https://twitter.com/insulatelove?lang=en
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8N5mAeeCLbD-AFUqtPaF0g
Notes to Editors
About Insulate Britain
Insulate Britain is a new campaign group that is calling on the UK government to put in place policy and funding for a national home insulation programme starting with all social housing.
We demand the Prime Minister and the government to #getonwiththejob, face up to their responsibility and lead our country through the climate crisis.
We are ordinary British citizens with simple and achievable demands to #INSULATEBRITAIN
The UK government must immediately promise to fully fund and take responsibility for the insulation of all social housing in Britain
We demand a national home insulation strategy that gives British people the justice they deserve: a future for our loved ones, lower energy bills and safer living conditions
We are scared: our livelihoods are at risk and the futures of our children are uncertain
The Climate Crisis is a threat to all: we demand the government to act now
Our Demands
1. That the UK government immediately promises to fully fund and take responsibility for the insulation of all social housing in Britain by 2025;
2. That the UK government immediately promises to produce within four months a legally binding national plan to fully fund and take responsibility for the full low-energy and low-carbon whole-house retrofit , with no externalised costs, of all homes in Britain by 2030 as part of a just transition to full decarbonisation of all parts of society and the economy.
Further information about Insulate Britain and our demands here: https://www.insulatebritain.com/
Technical Report on home energy efficiency here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HtOQmArzkDxhIYJrv9lBcl9lOUwfKoe7/view