The shadow climate change secretary said Britain was facing a “cost of living emergency” partly due to the Tories’ failure to insulate homes. He said both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak were to blame for this failure and urged them to reverse cuts to energy efficiency and insulation schemes. “If they don’t change course and adopt Labour’s plan, pensioners will be left cold, bills will remain high and we will have to import more gas from Putin and his cronies,” he said. “If the Conservatives were serious about cutting energy bills, they could start right now by implementing the Warm Homes Plan that Labor has been calling for. A proper national mission would save 19 million families over £1,000 on their bills, as well as creating good construction jobs and boosting our energy security.” Miliband said the government had done nothing about insulation since Keir Starmer called for an urgent plan to upgrade the 19 million British homes that need energy efficiency improvements. Labor said its plan would save an average of £1,000 per home, meaning if 1.9 million homes a year were insulated, the savings in the first three years alone would be £11.4 billion. Miliband said Sunak as chancellor had blocked efforts to spend billions on energy efficiency and expected Truss chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng oversaw the green housing grant scheme. Sunak said earlier in the campaign that he would prefer to refocus the money on insulation rather than subsidize the installation of heat pumps or the modernization of public buildings. He said: “If we can refocus that money to do these kinds of interventions, which are faster and cheaper, that seems like a logical thing for us to focus on.”
