Please email  craig.whittaker.mp@parliament.uk and ask him to sign Early Day Motion 47. This calls for Parliament to pass the Energy Bill Revolution proposal for the UK government to use the revenue from carbon taxes to pay for insulating people’s homes. Over the next 15 years, the government will raise about £4billion/year from the two main carbon taxes – the European Emissions Trading Scheme and the Carbon Floor Price.

Using these tax revenues to pay for improving home energy efficiency would make the UK’s leaky houses warmer and healthier and reduce the UK’s energy use and carbon emissions. It would also bring nine out of ten fuel-poor households out of fuel poverty and create jobs.

In the last session of Parliament, one of the MPs in the Energy Bill Revolution alliance put forward Early Day Motion (EDM) 2769, which called for Parliament to pass the proposal. 121 MPs signed up to support the EDM. Craig Whitaker didn’t, although there are over 9,000 households in fuel poverty in this constituency and presumably he wants to do something about it. But he’s written to me saying he’s confident the Green Deal will reduce fuel poverty.

Recently companies that are members of the Green Deal Finance Company have written to Nick Clegg casting doubt on the Green Deal. The Green Deal Finance Company is supposed to provide the loans to households to enable them to pay for home energy efficiency improvements, but its members who signed the letter to Nick Clegg say they need another £240m from the Government and are “holding off further development” of their plans until they get it. Not all members of the Green Deal Finance Company signed the letter, but work on developing the scheme has stopped.

Now Parliament is in a new session, an MP has put forward EDM 47 (to replace EDM 2769). This is another chance for Craig Whittaker to do something that will definitely help reduce his constituents’ fuel poverty. 135 MPs have currently signed this EDM, and numerous charities and businesses support the campaign. It totally makes sense.