- Conference
- 2013 Energy Service Group Conference
- Date
- 25 February 2013
- Decision
- Carried
The conference notes that the Coalition Government launched the Green Deal in Jan 2013. This supposed deal was introduced to encourage households to make their homes more energy efficient by having works carried out with little upfront cost but instead paying the costs via energy bills over a many years.
As well as the potential impact on energy efficiency, the green deal will have a impact on staff employed in the energy industries.
The proposed measures have however led to a great deal of confusion and take up rates are not at the levels required for this initiative to have any substantial impact on the levels of household energy consumed. As a result at a time when more households are being forced into fuel poverty and efforts to reduced environmental damage from energy production continues to be a major issue, the government backed scheme represents a huge and damaging missed opportunity.
This Conference believes the government should reconsider the green deal scheme and look instead at launching a national domestic energy efficiency drive funded by the receipts generated by carbon taxes. This approach is advocated by the energy bill revolution and has considerable wide ranging support.
The conference therefore asks the Service Group Executive
i) To monitor the take up rates of Green Deal schemes to provide scrutiny of the policy and challenge the results.
ii) To monitor the impact of the Green Deal on staff employed in the energy industry and to seek to counter any adverse effects.
iii) To write to the Secretary of State for Energy asking him to explain the low take up rates of the policy and challenge him on alternatives such as that advocated by the Energy Bill Revolution ‘EBR’.
iv) Via Labour Link and other appropriate channels in UNISON, ask for a meeting with members of the shadow energy team to understand the Labour Party’s response and how UNISON can work constructively on behalf of members.