- Conference
- 2010 Local Government Service Group Conference
- Date
- 18 February 2010
- Decision
- Carried
Conference is alarmed at the 15,000 local government redundancies across the UK in the 15 months to February this year and deplores the negative consequences for the individuals affected and local economies dependent on their spending power. Conference notes that in an otherwise austere pre-Budget report, an additional £150 million was announced for the ‘Warm Front’ scheme from April 2010, allowing a further 75,000 low income households to access subsidised insulation. Additional £150 million was also made available for low-carbon investment.
While Conference deplores the loss of essential jobs within councils to date, the energy efficiency retrofit of buildings and homes will create some potential for new, ‘green’ jobs in local government and better, energy efficient housing and services for council tenants and others.
Conference therefore calls on the Service Group Executive to:
1)Actively support and work more closely with the Local Government Association in its call for a council-led programme to provide basic insulation measures in 10 million homes and solid wall insulation in a further 300,000 homes, creating 25,000 jobs in the process
2)Explore the possibility of further promoting and developing environment and learning representatives – based on the positive feedback from the TUC and Carbon Trust’s Green Workplaces Pilot Scheme
3)Lobby local government employers to grant facility time to environment and learning representatives
4)Lobby UK governments to ensure that sustainability is built into the local government procurement process
5)Encourage local government to promote domestic energy efficiency and community renewable schemes and the creation of sustainable ‘green’ jobs